Friday, December 26, 2008

The Color of Love

The issue of things being black or white in terms of good or bad, one way or the other has always been in my thoughts, and I think it's safe to assume in many other's thoughts as well.

Before I've said that there are never just two types of people. Even if those two types make up the majority. There are, in my opinion, black and white areas everywhere you look.

Left is black, right is white. Up is white, down is black.

But the thing that most people never seem to consider: Where are you right now? I think that the reason most people tend to see things in either black or white is because they are standing in the gray area and you are only looking towards the direction of white or black. Imagine being in a room, two walls are white and then two walls are black, the floor and ceiling are gray If you look in one cardinal direction you will see either black or white.

Don't forget that there are many shades of gray. The reason why some people don't see things eye to eye is because they are standing in different shades of gray. I think that if you try and get someone to see your opinion while you tell yourself that you are standing in the white or black areas, they will see your opinion differently. They won't see it the same way you do because they are standing in different area. Anything can contribute to why you are standing in a particular place, such as how you were raised or who your friends are. But you have to remember that pretty much everyone is in a different shade of gray because no one has had the exact same experience as someone else.

That's why Jesus stood in the grey area of humanity. So that he could not only save us but learn about the gray in us. I am in no way saying that God was ignorant of what we went through before but in being human he was able to bridge the gap between the black and white. He was able to create the deepest and most important shade of gray that humanity has ever seen, and he was able to do that without becoming gray at all. I'd assume that God sees everything in black and white. But His black and white must be so much different from ours and He loves us so deeply that he can look through whatever black and white we may have and see us in a different color altogether. I think that He sees things so clearly that whatever black and white we have don't blur together to make gray but something else entirely.

When Jesus came down and died for our sins he made it so that no matter what shade of gray we are in, we could get rid of all our notions of black and white and go to the place with the colors of the rainbow that God calls us to. Are you going to let your own perspective on the blacks and whites of our world prevent you from reaching out to someone in a different shade of gray? Or are you going to learn to look pass all of the worldy things and see someone for who they really are, a creation of God made with the color of love.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Externals

The following is a quote by C.S. Lewis that I took to heart the moment I read it, I suggest whoever reads this does the same. But its only a suggestion.

"One great piece of mischief has been done by the modern restriction of the word Temperance to the question of drink. It helps people to forget that you can be just as intemperate about lots of other things. A man who makes his golf or his motor-bicycle the centre of his life, or a woman who devotes all her thoughts to clothes or bridge or her dog, is being just as ‘intemperate’ as someone who gets drunk every evening. Of course, it does not show on the outside so easily: bridge-mania or golf-mania do not make you fall down in the middle of the road. But God is not deceived by externals."

Think about that...

G.J. Frye