We were on the way to church Sunday and passed a vagrant. As we passed, I saw him through different eyes....I saw him as a mirror of myself. How strange to realize that we all share the same base desires...it doesn't matter who we are.
A CEO on Wall Street has the same desires that this vagrant has....the vagrant has the same desires that a Christian has. Hmmm....isn't that an unusual thought?
We share physical desires: food, clothing, shelter, sex, and touch. We share emotional desires: love, acceptance, peace, assurance, happiness, justice, and contentment. We share spiritual desires: a sense of purpose, meaning, connectiveness, peace, and belonging to something greater.
I think what determines how our lives end up is the fervency in which we pursue the various desires. Love leads us to date, seek out a mate, and eventually to marriage. Love may also lead us on a never-ending journey for what doesn't exist. Acceptance sometimes leads us to adopt different lifestyles or personalities. A thirst for justice can take you many places...maybe in a job to enact justice for all - or a lifelong, detrimental hunger for revenge. Sex can be found in the safe sanctity of marriage or in a dangerous emotional and physical need outside of marriage. Its amazing how these desires can lead us so many places ....and it's strange to think we are all pursuing the same things, in different degrees, in various ways, to a plethora of ends. When we pass a homeless man, we are the same. When we watch TV and see the actors, we are the same. When we see the addict, the drunk, the mom, the coach, the businessman, the teenager....we are looking into a mirror...Yes, the choices and pursuit may vary, but the base desires? ...we all have that in common.
How very strange to see the vagrant through those eyes ~ To see that we are the same. Makes me contemplate how I think about others...make me contemplate my choices and pursuits....makes me contemplate what desires lead people to their end.
dear daughter of mine you have just tapped into the well that very few humans ever thirst for. that is what makes US love----others IN their wrongs, because we are that person waiting {except for the grace, mercy, and guidance} IF we allow HOLY SPIRIT INSIDE US to direct our paths and thoughts; back to waiting--I can very easily like you just said be "THAT PERSON". We have a habbit of looking down our noses instead of up through our eyelashes at whats around us, WE AS CHILDREN BOUGHT BY THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AT THE COST OF HIS OWN BLOOD, have nothing to boast of in ourselves. i will spend some time today thanking OUR GOD that HE has let you see such a valuable jewel and to use it in bringing up your 4 little angels.
ReplyDelete