The Answer to All this Strife
Elitism seems to rule the world: the belief that some people are better than others, or people desperate to prove they are. The animosity engages judgement, endulges comparison, and ignites competition. We see it in our families with jealousy, our workplaces with back bighting and gossip, and in global affairs with political accusations and wars. The answer? Simple... humility. Not the kind that degrades and belittles, but Jesus' kind. The kind that washes the feet of someone who adores you; the kind that elevates someone who was publicly ridiculed to a place of honor and esteem; the kind that offers a helping hand to someone beaten and abused simply because they didn't fit in, are from the wrong tribe, neighborhood, country, or demographic - this kind of humility is a strong silent confidence, a peaceful protest, a diligent unrelenting love.
This love is not of our own making, although we were birthed in it...how easy we forget. Born the beloved, we grow and find ourselves contending for our place in the world: stature, recognition, pride. As we strive to "find ourselves" we pretend and compare, and then we find, in our heart of hearts, we have lost ourselves. All the working and loosing sleep, we find we have lost sight of our real thing: love. The simple place of rest where we love and are loved. We forgot who we are.
The beloved: One in whom one's identity is based upon the complete love and unconditional acceptance of God. We were born into it. The one God, who created each one of us and everything seen and unseen, stepped into flesh - into our humanness, our suffering, our madness - and engaged it. He knew we had strayed too far in our own thoughts, our own ways, to accept the intangible love He so freely offered...so He came. He came and experienced the worst we had to give Him: our resentment, our fury, our judgement, our suspicion, our rage, and, He took it. With love in His heart and forgiveness upon His lips, He took it. He took it to the grave. He took it to be done with it. He took it to settle any account we had in our consciousness. He took it because we could not free ourselves. He took it because He loves us and would not allow us to destroy ourselves, lonely and afraid.
In the darkness of the night, 3 days left lifeless, the earth began to shake. The sealed door opened and light flooded the barren tomb. It was empty. No lifeless corpse rotting. No stinch of death, but only the discarded cloth, once wrapped to cover the Master. He was risen. He took all animosity to the grave and rose free of it...and us, created by, in, and united with Him, are free as well - we must only respond and engage, in the beauty of that unrelenting love.