We all have very high opinions of humanity in general. Until we run into conflict. At some point, for some of us daily, we run into someone who’s goals, needs, desires, etc. run contrary to our own. Conflict. So when we are asked about humanity, about what we as humans are worth, are capable of, our answer will probably depend heavily on what kind of day we’ve had interacting with humanity. Personally, my answers vary anywhere between “Humans have a wonderful ability to pull together during a crisis, to sacrifice their own needs for another’s…etc etc” to “People suck.”
Yesterday was a “people suck” day. And I was confronted by a challenge I had given myself these preceding months. Based on a lecture I’d heard, I asked myself: “How would it change the way I interacted with the world if in my heart I greeted every passing person as, “Good morning, your Majesty.” If I truly believe that all humanity is representative, a reflection of the best the universe has to offer, if I believe that the image of the Living God is present in their bodies and minds, how does that affect how I treat them? “Good morning, your majesty.”
Today I go to work. And I don’t feel like facing those conniving women. Not today. But. “Good morning, your Majesty.”
1 Comment
14 May, 2008 at 10:10 am
Melanie and I talked recently about more or less this exact same thing: how would your life change if you treated every single person you came across as the image of God? How much more patient, loving, quick to forgive would we be? Better still: how would it look to treat everyone as a picture of Christ, ransomed by Christ–just like me?
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