Recent Musings:
A slight twist.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
"We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves..."
This is part of the Lutheran liturgy, however, I think the problem is that we do love our neighbors as ourselves and this is why we're so judgmental and rude and harsh and merciless to our 'neighbors.' Think about how you treat yourself; think about how hard you are on yourself. I know for me I demand things from myself - I expect never to be tired, to always be able to concentrate, to receive perfect scores on all my assignments, to stay on top of every responsibility, to be the funny and always attractive wife. If I hold this same standard to my 'neighbor' and criticize that person when they don't meet my demanding expectations, then I AM loving my neighbor as I love myself. And this is the problem!
I've written in the past (and I have no brain power to reverbalize it all now) that I think the problem IS that we do not love ourselves and therefore have no capacity or understanding on how to love and treat others kindly (because we don't even do it for ourselves!). I don't have a solution; I just wanted to present this twist on the "love your neighor as yourself" mantra. I think we do and that's the problem.
Perhaps, then, a solution could be to start being merciful and gracious to ourselves, to allow ourselves to be tired and unattractive and imperfect. Perhaps if we (I) could allow that in ourselves (myself), then the world would be a much more merciful and understanding place.