Or…whose side are you on?
Ever notice how natural those questions seem? We take it for granted…everything’s about drawing lines and choosing sides.
We love the folks at Venture Expeditions. They do all kinds of cool things under the tagline BENEFIT THE WORLD, DISCOVER YOUR SOUL. They’re really good at organizing cross-country team bike rides and running trips.
I’ve been trying to get them to do something in Colorado for a long time. Finally they announced 2016 Run Colorado, a team relay run along the Colorado Front Range. So I sent an email and asked if I could help with routes (they’re based in Minnesota). They accepted my offer but also sort of apologized for “infringing on our home turf.”
You see it, right? The automatic assumption of competition. We’re all following Jesus and promoting justice. We’re reaching completely different audiences. They’re runners, we’re cyclists. And to be honest, we pretty much borrowed our model from them to begin with.
Still, a small part of them wondered if we’d see them as competitors. Would we be on their side?
We Don’t Have To Draw Lines
Yes, it’s a cultural norm. Of course life’s easier when we divide ourselves up into some neatly-defined categories, even if those categories don’t make a lot of sense. But easier isn’t the point.
Draw a line and you can be right. The other guy can be the devil, the enemy, the outsider.
Draw the line in a different place and the two of you are on the same side, and someone else becomes the enemy. Funny how it works.
What if we just stopped drawing lines?
I think that’s what Jesus did, what He calls us to do.
It doesn’t come naturally, for sure. But what if there aren’t any sides?
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