Last night, my roommate and I were talking about how people treat each other and even themselves. It really got me thinking. How often do we use the words, "stupid", "ugly", "normal", "worthless", "not worth it", "okay", "unlikable", "weird", "what's wrong with....", or so many other demeaning phrases to talk about ourselves or someone else we know? I know I'm guilty of it. But, if we were to see our neighbors and ourselves like God sees us, how could we dare use such words? How could we dare to feel like we are worthless? How could we dare to put down one of His children?
God sees us with all of our potential--He knows what we are capable of us and loves us beyond compare. Although it's impossible to have such perfect love and knowledge of those around us, we could begin to treat others (and ourselves) like God would. One of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes talks about this:
"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature, which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity much be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner – no mere tolerance, or indulgence, which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbor, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat – the glorifier and the glorified, Glory himself, is truly hidden. " – C.S. Lewis
If we were to keep this in mind, how many problems would that solve? With this knowledge, why would you lie, cheat, or rob someone else? Why would you bully, abuse, or otherwise hurt someone? Why would you consider yourself better or worse than the person sitting next to you?
You wouldn't.
Recently, I've just been seeing a lot of people who have been forgetting that we are all children of God with a divine potential and purpose. I know lots of people who are overly harsh on themselves and a few who are overly harsh on others. It's just made me think about how much God loves us and wishes that we saw ourselves and those around us like He does. I hope that we can.
It's something that me and my roommate are working on right now. So when I start being negative about myself or someone around me, I'm going to stop and think, "How does God see them?" I'll let you know how it goes. Even in these past few hours, it's already making a positive difference in my life. I can't wait to continue working on it and to see more like God does.
