In The Land of Intolerant (Audio)
In the land of intolerant, no one allows anyone to be who they want to be.
This has nothing to do with the left, center or right. It’s not party affiliation, wealth or ethnicity. Do not pull forward thinking into the conversation, nor think of everyone else as living in the past. You may try to wrap it in religious gift wrapping and blame someone else, but you would only be masking the nature of intolerance under the cloak of someone’s chosen belief system.
I believe intolerance exists when any side prevents anyone from being who they want to be. Everyone wants to control how everyone else views the world. Laws change. Accept it or be labeled intolerant. Times change. Go with it or you’re stuck in the past where intolerance was normal. Move forward! Blame the past! Accept the new world order and forget what you believe or was taught. Reject it all because it does not line up with your worldview.
And can I tell you that “worldview” is a shifting target because what is viewed as normal and acceptable today will be an anathema to the general populous tomorrow!
I was raised a certain way, lived through the 60’s with hardly a bump, and for the most part, I’ve continued that path of generations past, except, I’ve modernized my experience. We were raised to look at life from a certain perspective and it was hard to see the other side of the coin. There was nothing wrong with our bubble – we were restricted by the parameters of life as lived in our narrow place on the planet. We were not raised to think little of someone else because of their differences, but we were taught that there was a Godly and Biblical view of our Blue Planet that made certain paths correct, and others, well, let’s just say they were not viewed as survivable!
Saturday television (always a black and white experience!) had a favorite broadcast we would watch if we were stuck inside – “ABC Wide World of Sports” with the “agony of defeat”. It was just about the closest we came to seeing life around the world as something different than what we were living. Winter sports were the absolute best! Snow. Mountains. Ski Lifts to the top of the world…nothing like it existed in our little corner of Texas!
Add to that, please, we lived next to NASA and all the astronauts gave us a view of places off this planet!
Talk about a jump in perspective!
Then marriage, kids, and now the world is a lot different. It’s hard to be who I am since the world has changed dramatically from my birth in ’55. Before you think this weird, I do believe every generation in modern history has experienced great change, but my world has seen a far greater change than what was experienced only 100 years ago and that was simply 37 years before my birth!
Think about it. Computers, Internet, Global Presence, Wireless and worldwide communication, Driverless cars, Cashless society, and that is a short list of change to consider! There is no more mystery, everything seems to be known and the only thing we need to think deeper about is how to be more tolerant of a radically changing landscape.
This morning I was thinking about the book by H.G. Wells, “The Country of the Blind“. You would have to read it to understand this statement, but “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man would be king.” It seems we are living in an era where there are a lot of one-eyed people who see only their own perspective of right and wrong, good and bad, left vs right, moving ahead or slipping backward…and they view everyone else as blind. Their monocular view of the world means they lack the depth of field, fail to see things from another persons’ point of view, or they are blinded to greater perception. This is often the only view seen by photographers when they get their face into a camera’s viewport. Or a hunter with a rifle’s scope… One eye to view the target, and then through the magic of the viewfinder’s screen, they close the other eye to keep the single view in focus.
Think about that. One view. Focused. Other eye closed to the world around them. They see themselves as “right” and all others as absolutely wrong. And, they want everyone to see the world their way, and not your way.
We have all had to learn to broaden our view of the world as everything opens up around us. I hold fast to the foundation of my spiritual beliefs, my strength of family, and the values that were poured into me by my heritage, which also includes my country.
But I also believe there will be a great shaking that will rattle the cage of everything around us. Government. Financial Systems. Nations. Security. Unity. Safety. We may not agree with it, but as a conversation with someone lately about a particular movement taking the world by storm, there will be innocents lost to the shaking of the cage of our planet.
Jesus describes an ending time like this:
“And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” (Luke 21:25-28 NKJV)
When the shaking of our framework begins to happen, and perhaps you see this happening even now, I believe there is only one solution. We will need a redemption as like no other time on the face of the earth. Regardless of your monocular vision, or which side of the equation you exist on, the day will come when we will look for a savior. It will not be a man, nor a system, or some red-caped individual flying in from another planet.
Not even Mickey Mouse, “Here I come to save the day!”
Believe Hollywood all you want, but I believe there is only One God that can save us, and He began that work in a manger nearly 2,000 years ago. When it starts getting weirder than you ever thought it could be, and you feel the rattling begin, you will need to make an extreme effort to find Him.
Don’t put it off. Consider it today. Pray that it’s not too late to open both eyes and see with a better perspective.