Choose Love Over Strangeness

My this has been one cool July weekend. The campers out in the wilderness of northern Minnesota probably needed their heaters last night. But, is that the only strange thing going on today? Of course not. There seems to be more strangeness than ever in the world today and we get to hear or read or watch all about it on our news media outlets. Today it is more important than ever for us to choose to love one another. Jesus did not say to wonder in shocked, jaw-dropping silence at the strangeness of our fellow humans, though that will probably happen these days, but he said to love each other. That requires a conscious choice now more than ever it seems.

I don't need to catalog all the strangeness presented just in one day's news articles this morning, and the day has barely begun here, for you to understand what I write about. The hermit in the Idaho mountains is there to escape what we can see on the news on any given day. Of course strangeness to one is perfect freedom of expression or speech to another. If what is strange to us is not harming anyone, why are we so quick to condemn it? Yes, there are lists in the Bible, and but for the grace of Jesus Christ you and I would be on 'em.

Picking out one or more sins from the list and pointing the finger at a group of people in an attempt to shame them does not help anyone. You may feel better for a bit, a little superior perhaps, but a good 'No, you cannot' is the best way to make someone want to do something all the more. Don't believe me? How many speed limit signs have you treated as suggestions? Ever hear of someone telling off an officer of the law for issuing speeding citations when he or she should be pursuing 'real' crime? I think all of us have participated in or heard of these things. I know; our speeding always had/has a good excuse, doesn't it? In a mythical nation far away, someone might think it strange for us to be in such a hurry to get to our destination that we break the law. What if a state made it a capital crime to argue with a police officer for any reason?

Strangeness is in the eye of the beholder, but love has some qualities that God set down in writing. One of the best ways to love is to seek understanding of the other person before we seek to condemn. Yes, people feel the way they do, are attracted to those they are attracted to, and desire what they desire, and they may get up one morning and decide to change everything about themselves. They may not be able to, but they may try. I think most or all of us have awakened one morning and tried to change something or everything about us; aren't we just the strange ones?

Bucky