I asked our MOUNTAIN TOUR teammates for a favorite short quote.
One guy replied, “Us” – about as short as you can get.
He’s coaching his daughter’s soccer team. He wanted them to know they were in it together. He hoped they’d carry the idea beyond the soccer field. So after every practice, every timeout, every pep talk, the entire team said their word in unison.
“Us.”
As he thought about and prepared for the tour, he thought Us was a good quote. We were coming together to do a difficult thing. We would rely on each other for support and encouragement. We’d need to know that we were in it together. And of course we want that to carry beyond the tour.
Us is a pretty good word.
We struggle to be Us in a world of lines, in a culture of opposition research and shaming others based on their worst moments. We struggle to be Us when there’s so much riding on making sure we win and, even more important, the other side loses.
+ + +
Jesus erases our lines. He eliminates the USAmerican obsession with winners and losers. He flips the popular kids’ table.
Jesus knows every bit of the ugly truth of my past – and still loves me unconditionally.
C.S. Lewis said if you could see the other person as Jesus see them, you might be tempted to fall down and worship. If you and I are so valued, perhaps we ought to at least be a bit more kind to each other.
Not just those on our side, those we like or with whom we agree.
The immigrant. The homeless person. The poor or hungry person. The prisoner. Victims of human trafficking. Those folks aren’t the other side, and they aren’t political footballs.
They’re “Us.”