These thoughts could probably fill a book. There is so much to say here, but I'm not quite ready for that yet.
If I were to ask you, "what is your life mission?" what might you say? Or let me phrase it another way, "what is something that you never want to forget while living your life?" One of the answers I have to that questions is to love and accept people for who they are. I wish to truly recognize their humanity and treat them with the dignity and respect that their humanity deserves.
A few different things prompted these kinds of thoughts in my head once again. A few days ago, I was listening to music on one of my favorite stations. The next song played automatically, and I started bobbing my head to the beat. (I know this blog is called Shameless, but I am not willing to face the backlash and teasing if I confess what song this was.) I liked the sound of it a lot. The artist is talented. I cannot deny it. Once I started listening to the lyrics though, I found myself horrified at what was actually being said. Both people in the song blatantly made it clear that they were using each other for their own purposes and if either failed in fulfilling those purposes, the relationship was over. There was no compassion for mistakes and frail humanity, there was no appreciation for each other's uniqueness and personhood, there was no love--only consumerism.
I thought more on this topic last night as I watched a movie with a friend. (We went to see the new Tarzan movie.) I was reminded once again how disgustingly cruel and selfish some nations were to my beloved Africa. Africa was invaded, raped, plundered, and left behind like trash*. It is was just like one of the characters in that unnamed song--I'll use you until you're worthless to me, then I'll abandon you.
In life, I'm going to venture that many of us have not felt like people were treating us with human dignity--we were being used. It probably started early: you weren't a playmate, you were just the kid with the cool toy that everyone wanted to see. Next, you were the student with a pencil, not a friend or a classmate. Maybe you were someone to occupy the time until "someone" better came along. Maybe it was your money, your success, your possessions, or the emotional comfort you gave--whatever it was, someone wanted it and took it. After they were done, they threw you away. We've all been scarred by such things in many different ways; we were consumer items to be used and discarded rather than human beings with thoughts and feelings.
I've made it a priority in my life to truly love the people around me (as difficult as it can be sometimes) and not to use them for my own gain or benefit. Consumerism towards people is one of the most un-Christlike attitudes I can imagine (Mark 10:45.) Humanity was created in the image of God. Out of all creation, humanity is in the closest relationship and comparison to God himself. He made us in His own image to have a relationship with us. The creation of humankind is a celebration of God's love, creativity, and power. To not respect this is a grave travesty.
I wanted to write these things today because I want to spur myself and others on towards loving more sincerely, deeply, and honestly. Will we love the people around us because they are human beings made in the image of God, deserving of respect and dignity because of that status, or will we treat them like consumer items to be gorged upon and devoured for our own selfish gain? This includes everyone--our friends, our families, strangers on the street, the homeless person in the subway, the cranky grandma on the street peddling vegetables, the bratty student--everyone.
There is a greater power in authentic love that in many ways has yet to be unleashed in many of us. I am asking God, and I hope you will too, to transform our consumer hearts into giving hearts. Luckily, He promised to do just that (Ezekiel 36:26-27!)
Tell you what, if anyone can guess the name of the song or the artist in the comments below, I'll confess to it. ;)
Peace out!
* My friend that I watched the movie with recommended a book to me called King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild. I'm going to be reading it myself this summer. It speaks about some of the events I mentioned above.
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