the greatest of these

I've met a decent amount of people in my life. And I've had conversations with a good variety of people too. Turns out that there's no one just like me out there so far. I mean I heard there was a doppleganger of me somewhere in the US, but I haven't met her yet. But chances are good that we're not exactly the same either. And even if we looked the same and acted the same, we would have different life experiences that shaped us so yep: still not the same.

That might all seem like an obvious point that I'm making there, but I'm making it for a good reason, I promise. It leads into the less obvious point which should honestly be just as obvious as that point! 

None, not one of us, is identical to anyone else, not even identical twins. My dad was an identical twin and although my Uncle Don was so similar in looks and in nature to my dad that sometimes when he visited it felt like we had two dads, there were enough differences to set them apart from each other. 

The truth is this:

You and I and every other person in this world are different. We have different upbringings by different parents. We had a different variety of friends in school who influenced our lives. We grew up in different neghborhoods, towns, states, countries. We have each had experiences, both good and bad, that have shaped us. Our brains and hearts work in their own unique ways. We developed different political views (and if you all think I'm just speaking to one side of the political party today, you all would be wrong.) We have experienced different faiths, different educations, different people, different jobs, and different influences. 

What in the world makes us fight so hard to make sure everyone sees things the way we do? Why must we be right and try to prove it to the world? Why is our pride more important than peace? Are our opinions really more important than our relationships? Do we always have to speak our minds? And why is this "tolerating" business so difficult? Last I understood "to tolerate" someone and their opinions doesn't mean you have to agree with them about everything. But I think the word "respect" should be in its definition...

Because fact of the matter is this: WE ARE ALL JUST TOLERATING EACH OTHER!! We all have differing viewpoints on something somewhere somehow and are tolerating each other everyday. 

I think somewhere along the lines we got our priorities mixed or maybe we (and I'm chatting here at those who are gung-ho Jesus followers like myself) missed the real message of the Bible: God first, others second, myself last. God doesn't say we can put others last if we disagree with them. And I'm not sure you're gonna win a lot of people over to Christ if you tell them how right you are and how wrong they are before you have even developed a trusting relationship with them. And if I'm being honest (which I am so I'm not sure why that phrase was created, like do you have to guess at my honesty because of the "if"? Weird. #squirrel!), I'm not going to want to listen to someone who shoves their opinion down my throat without even consider how or why I might feel differently. 

Okay, I'll step down off this soapbox, but not until I share one last thing. 

(If you want to skip this whole chapter, do me a favor and read the last verse.)

1 Corinthians 13New International Version (NIV)

13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in partand we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhoodbehind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The greatest of these is love.

Mic drop.

KC