These are days… (Part 1)

Note: Now, having entered a new year of life, my recommitment to myself and to the world.

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For as long as I can recall, I’ve been able to see both sides of an argument. Variances in points of view. Nuances of perspective.

When I was younger, I oft berated myself for my near-constant vacillation. I wasn’t able to take one point of any consideration and stick to it. To lighten the burden of my disdain for what I considered to be my indecisiveness, I would poke fun at myself. “Give me a point of view,” I’d declare, “and I’ll debate that, and then switch sides!”

It’s not that I didn’t and don’t have opinions. They, manifold in number, arise (as I believe all human opinions do) from the daily, moment-to-moment employ of reason and emotion as I reflect on my personal history via the storehouse of my memory coupled with (compelled by!) the constant flood of stimuli from the surrounding environment and my inner world, which, received and processed, consciously and unconsciously, translates into observations and perceptions.

Nevertheless, I continue to see multiple facets of any subject or issue.

All this said, there is one place, one position, as a follower of Jesus, that I hold dear. I stand on the side of love and justice, unconditional and impartial benevolence and fairness for and with all.

Do I fail in doing and being love and justice for and with all? Yes, especially when I choose my opinions, my preferences and prejudices as the truth of my living. When that happens, I have learned, in penitence, to repent of this expression of my sin-of-self, so, again, to be an open vessel into which God’s Love, by the Holy Spirit, can be poured and, thus, to be poured out of me for and with all.

© 2021 PRA