“It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long, we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people.”
C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1949/1965, page 14-15.
Related posts:
Pastor Note #131: A Pastoral Response to Someone Struggling in these Divisive Times
Bible Note #50: James 2:1 and “Us vs. Them” Thinking
Pastor Note #98: Hearing Our Neighbors’ Cry of Distress: A White Pastor Talks to his White Congregation about Race
Pastor Note #92: Living Out Love
Pastor Note #73: No “Us” and “Them”: Race, Ethnicity, and the Mandate of Love
Photo by GAC–Detail from a sculpture at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, AZ
Gary Chorpenning's Notebooks 