Staring thru Sunglasses

Tim Lucas of Liquid has gotten me somewhat addicted to listening to U2. I stumbled upon a quote by Bono: "it is impossible to meet G-d with sunglasses on." I don't generally SPELL out "gee-oh-dee." No, I'm not jewish. It's a personal practice.

This creator made some seriously cool stuff. But he made one item that never ceases to amaze me: people. Whether they're in need or wealthy... whether they're arrogant or humble... rude or kind... mean or nice... strange or normal... they're all created in the image of the creator. It's a lot easier to be angry at someone when you don't consider that. I can easily want to see a person suffer when I don't consider that they deserve the exact same punishment I do. Then i have to stop being so friggen cocky (it's a barely noticable trait) and consider the other person through different eyes.

I sometimes tend to walk up to a person who is taking up space and breathing air and approach them as an object that has one of two purposes:

1. Do as I wish or instruct
2. Piss me off

It seems those are the two most popular choices... And with only THOSE two choices, it's not surprising that the second happens far more often than the first.

Now, I'm not simply looking for people to either please me or get out of the way... most of the time. But we all do that. We all walk into a scenario with other people and a set of loaded expectations and a deck stacked against them. The problem is, they are often walking in with an equally stacked deck. It then becomes an others/self sceneario. So why is it so easy to only think about what will affect "me?"

Well, my current answer is: I live with myself 24 hrs a day... 7 days a week... 365 days a year. I have to spend holidays with myself, weekends, vacations, sporting events... i can't even go to the bathroom without myself. Really. Can't a person have some privacy?

We are surrounded with "self" and so little time do we spend with others. It's like ... well, it's like Coach Sal & Jogging. I know the dude runs like 9 million miles a day because he surrounds himself with all the trimmings of a runner. In the same way, we tend to surround ourself with ourself.

When we perform well, we see that as a jewel of our life... We set it on display. We polish it. We prize it. We want it noticed. But, when we don't perform, that's something else to throw into the closet of unforgettable memories. And yet, that over loaded closet has armed guards and is often protected more than our treasured parts. The closet gets full; overflows & spills out so that now everyone is pointing at our faux pas. Our jewel gets scuffed and begins to smell of the rank disgust of our room of disgrace. Now we must over compensate and create confidence out of cocky.

It's tougher to walk into the presence of someone so selfless as Yeshua when my self seems to be such a big part of who I am. Everyone tells us to "be yourself." We spend years trying to "find" ourself. Philosophies make it necessary to "know" one's self.

Now you have this self-proclaimed deity dude saying forget yourself. So we trade freedom with the barrier of cool sunglasses. And safest place to appear without your sunglasses, becomes the most difficult place to go.

With so many Xtians (where x is the Greek letter Chi which stands for Christ the greek word for Messiah) who parade about as if to say: "Y'know, Jesus could have simply pricked his finger and washed my sin away... but he had to DIE because of you." It's easy to forget that they're just as trapped by their sunglasses, too. Almost all of us have a hiding place that we don't even want the Creator to come. Almost all of us have times where we want to wear a disguise in hopes that even our Savior doesn't recognize us. Sometimes it's pride. Often it's fear. Mostly it's guilt. But it's not guilt heaped on by your Father.