are we relational people?

Lately, I’ve been thinking about how easy it is to divide ourselves in our communities. People fit in categories of race, class, gender, fame, power and then into subcategories…how good looking you are, how smart you are, how many children you have, how well you dress, and the list goes on and on…

There are unspoken rankings…and it can all devolve to one big popularity contest…it’s often how we make sense of the world around us: by categories and algorithms that we may not even acknowledge in our heads. When we meet someone for the first time, it is always easier to judge…and much harder to have nice things to say, most of the time.

The spark that got me thinking was a conversation I overheard…people were talking about the Downtown Eastside and how “lazy junkies” are so coked up all the time that they can’t do any better. how…they should just get into detox to “fix themselves”…and it went on, and on…there’s no purpose of me writing more. I realized…how easy it is to stay within a frame of mind which clearly defines the “us” and the “them”. That divide is what keeps us away from creating relationships with people who live in different circumstances than we do. As much as we know that we must have compassion for people around us, we are always frightened to step out of the confines of middle-class social propriety….our relationships take place in bistro cafes, shopping malls, and online chatter…and certainly not on the streets of Canada’s poorest neighbourhood.

I know my writing can come off as offensive…and I’m not saying that I’ve got things all figured out…all I’m saying is that this is something I struggle with. As I look to how Jesus lived when He was on earth…his story-telling, his unabashed warmth for people from all walks of life, his very deliberate embrace of the marginalized – I’m beginning to see that as Christians, we are demanded to do the same. Our God isn’t a God of charity after all, He is a God of love; of the variety that does not judge and does not categorize.