By Yesterday was a tough day. My friend, whom I have known since childhood, is gone much too soon. It is a shock. He was in pain, and nobody knew. I have been thinking about what follows for quite a while now, but today was the catalyst to put these thoughts out into the world. Love our neighbor as ourselves is the second most important commandment according to Jesus. As a follower of Jesus, I do my absolute best to love and treat people the way that I want to be loved and treated. Do I get it right all the time? Absolutely not. I am human and we are good as humans at getting it wrong. I do try to do better every time I do not love or treat somebody well and asking for forgiveness from the person I have hurt and God.
Loving each other, no matter your spiritual beliefs or lack thereof, is the most important job we have while on this planet. The world tells us our job is to make money and acquire stuff. It says that is the measure of success. It is not. Loving our fellow human beings well, being kind to everyone we encounter, and putting good into the world is the true measure of success. The world will tell you we need to always be right. No. What we need to do is listen to the experiences of others different from us and do our best to understand their point of view. Doing so is how we learn, grow, and become better. I know it seems like there is no common ground with anyone who is different from us a lot of the time, but I do not believe that to be the case. We have much more in common than we do differences we just have to be willing to see each other and hold space for each other.
I am not under the impression that any of what I have written here will be simple or easy. It will be neither. However, it is vital that we keep trying every day. None of us know how much time we have, and I want to use my time here wisely. Today is world kindness day. It feels apt to put this out in the world on this day because it feels like this day reminds us all that changing what we have been doing is vital for a better world and to start now with love and kindness as our guides.
