NOT a Political Post

Happy Saturday! Here’s the thing, I realize that I am super inconsistent with posting on this blog, but I am not going to apologize for it anymore. I do plenty of writing each week for school so this blog has a tendency to fall toward the bottom of my priority list (sadly). Today, though, I felt the urge to sit and write.

I’m sitting at my favorite coffee shop here in Omaha, NE. As I procrastinate my homework (that my open planner keeps reminding me I have), I can’t help but sit here, listen and watch the people around me. There are so many different types of people. As a friend told me earlier today, “everyone has their own way.” I am reminded of that as I look around at all of the people.

Some are sitting and socializing, some are working diligently on their own homework, and others are working on business endeavors. Even as I sit typing this, a father just sat down with his young son to play a card game. You may say, “Bekah, you could say that about literally anywhere,” and you would be right. But how often do we notice?

Lately, I have been becoming increasingly aware of the people around me. I mean, I know that there are other people in the world besides me, but how often do I actually notice them? Not, how often do I notice their presence, but how often do I notice the nuances that make them unique? As I have become more aware of others lately, I have started to learn so much about humanity. I think I have a tendency to view people as either “good people” or “bad people,” or, if I’m being honest, Christians and non-Christians.

The other evening at 8:08 (a college group I go to), the pastor talked about entitlement. He talked about how each and every one of us is entitled in one way or another, even if it is just in the way we think. I do not want to be that Christian. I do not want to be the Christian that looks at others and measures them based off of their spiritual maturity, how “good” they are, or what political candidate they support.

If I’m being honest, I so am that Christian. I have been that Christian for a while, and it grieves me to think that I have seen people in that way. So, Christians, I challenge you. Take a look at the world around you. Don’t do it to “assess” the state of our country, don’t do it to find ways to evangelize, do it because you desire to see and to love the people that God created, in His image.

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands, remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Ephesians 2:11-13