Thoughts of The Day NMC & bus ride

Thoughts of The Day
NMC & bus ride

Questions
What is it in people that creates a social barrier?
What is the meaning that God wants us to draw out of created things?
What is it about persecution that creates natural respect?
Does Persecution of the Church validate what we believe?

What is it in people that creates a social barrier? This one is hard to figure out, dealing with humans which are complicated beyond understanding. We can gain a glimpse into the hearts of men and gain a general understanding but we can’t fully know. Proverbs 20:1 says the heart of a man is a deep well, but the man of understanding draws it out. There are introverts and extroverts but these don’t necessarily create barriers. The barrier is when someone puts up a wall in their mind based on a stereotype, history with people or a type of people. This wall in their mind, creates these social barriers. There are probably several reasons why these sets are in place. First of all it can be learned, it is a barrier they always lived with, where they probably learned it from their parents or peers or whoever. It creates a mental set, where they are ignorant that there is even another way to see things or another way to live. Secondly it could be a stigma that is created based on past experiences or knowledge. E.G. I knew someone like that before and I didn’t enjoy them/like them/ it ended badly. So with these past experiences we associate people with other people based on past experiences and we invite them into our lives or block them out of our lives based on this. This is not fair to people, to brothers and sisters because they may need us and we may be missing out on opportunities as well as good relationships. This is not fair to non-believers because they need Jesus and it is wrong to let ourselves get in the way of that. We must tear down the walls that plague our communities, that plague the Church.

Another way that people put up walls is by being elitist, whether or not they see it that way. For me to structure my life around specific people because of their image that pleases me or their personality that pleases me is wrong. As Christians we were called into the church, into community, God’s community, his structure not our own structure, it is his kingdom and we let him shape our lives from the inside of us, to the people outside of us. When we pick and choose people within the community to form our own sub-community we may be damaging the Church. This is different from concentric circles of community. This is not to say that having some close friends and acquaintances. Introverts will tend to have a few close friends and extroverts will tend to have tons of shallow friendships. Introverts will have several Close friends like maybe 5-10 but not a ton of acquaintences, extroverts will tend to have a ton of acquaintances but just 1-3 very close friends. But the difference between all this is an unwillingness to allow others into your life and into your circle, you segregate. Most people do this and are unwilling to acknowledge that they do. Even I have a tendency to do this. These segregated social sub-circles can be based on a common way of thinking, attractiveness, style, culture, nearly anything. They are unhealthy for the Church. Now this is not to say that we should treat our existing relationships frivolously, in fact we should be intentional about people that we pour into, and people that pour into us, but not so intentional that if they don’t work out that we reject opportunities with mentors or disciples. It is an openness to God’s will and peoples need/desire. It is an openness to let the community be as it should and not how I want it to be. When we segregate and create cliques without opportunity we are creating our own kingdom based on our preferences rather than letting God build his Kingdom among us.