we are one tonight

I think God wants us to have big worlds. He made the Universe massive beyond our comprehension. We look at it and can’t help but realize that we are tiny.

As our worlds get smaller and smaller we see the world less the way that God wants us to see it. We start to think that we are big and the world is small. I think one of the worst ways we do this is when we reduce our world to the size of the church. In a fight, a hand will look at its foot and say, “i’m glad you’re a foot- we’ll need to punch and kick if we’re going to win this.” But when the hand cannot see beyond the body, it forgets that it is in the middle of a war. It forgets that the enemy is the one standing across the room. It forgets that its body is not all there is, but all it has. Then it begins to look at its foot and say, “hmmm… your toes are pretty short. It would be better if they were fingers. And why is it that your arch is rounded? It should look like a palm.” We forget our similarities- that we share the same skin, the same DNA, the same neurons carrying signals from the same brain- and begin to only see our differences.

We can’t survive with this perspective. Our enemy needs only to throw a little dust in our eyes and we forget that he exists. Or we believe that he exists, and that we are the only ones fighting him. That we are the only ones of whom the Head approves. And when the Head sends coordinated messages to the entire body, we flail in all directions. The Head reminds us, “Body, we are on the same team.”

“We are one tonight, and we’re dreaming out loud. And the world is flawed, but these scars will heal…”