Humans
are capable of doing grand things. We
build monumental feats of engineering. We crystallize our ideas and
imaginations into books. We travel at breath-taking speeds. We even leave
our
own planet to explore the heavens above. However,
we still view the world according to our own
immediate
environment. We see the world usually as our home, family, and
friends...simply put,
whatever is comforting and familiar to
us. Of course, there are the explorers, the people who expand beyond
the immediate; yet, still, for many of
us
humans
going
outside this, we feel fear, hate, intolerance, all those negative
things. We
are afraid of what we don’t understand and what is different.
Religion helps many of us to make sense of all we don’t understand. Yet
we even take religion and mold it into something familiar,
comforting, routine.
God
knows
what we humans are like.
We
have created a million ways to seek God and the ultimate truths. A
million sacred texts to find the answers and the way. Once you take
out all the man-made stuff—Bible
interpretations, traditions, requirements, customs, doctrine, and all that generates fear and
misgiving or that forces you to conform to a man-made idea of what
religion should do or be --you are left with something simple.
Something
so simple we humans can’t seem to collectively grasp it.
That
simple
thing is for us to get along and love one another. It is not to fear
what is strange and new. It is wanting us all to work together. It
is treating others the way we wish to be treated. It is wanting us to really love one another and seek peace. You
can see for the entirety of human history, we have fought this simple
idea
of
true peace.
Wars, terrorism, greed, slavery, genocide, hatred, mutilation,
intolerance, the
pains of humanity
have
been "business as usual"
for the human race since
it has existed.
We
even quote Bible verses to say there
will always be war and rumors of wars. We kill other religions and
ideas to push our own agendas. We blindly follow leaders who tell us
to hate. We
applaud greed as necessary. We say we speak for God when we want
violence to comfort our fear.
Maybe
what
God
only
wants for us and from us is
for us
all—every
person, every race, every nation, every faith, everyone— to
simply get along and love each other...because
He
knew
that
that would ultimately
be the most difficult thing we would ever have to do.
