THE LAST RIVER MILE

At no point do I have permission to call another person “garbage” or to regard any person as such.

And nothing gives me a “pass” to do so. Not the amount of wealth I command. Not the official or unofficial position of power I hold. Not any amount of “success” I can claim. Not the imagined “rightness” of my viewpoint. Not the unchecked adulation I may receive from the crowds. Not the fact that I am a plain-speaking or candid person. Not enveloping myself with the rhetoric of righteousness. Not the real or imagined wrongs of those I am labeling.

Clearly this is hard for many of us in the human tribe. Nevertheless, for followers of Jesus it is blindingly clear and at command level. ALL human beings are made in the image of God. (Genesis 1:26ff.) God loves ALL of the human family. (John 3:16.) The goal is for God’s love in Christ to reach ALL. (Matthew 28:19.) Therefore, to call any person “garbage” is to turn from the very heart of God.

Period.

I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.