It’s time for us to say it. Its been a long time coming and we’ve gotten too comfortable keeping them around. I mean, having them here is less scary right? They don’t demand as much. It’s safer. I get it. But if we don’t open our mouths now, they’ll stay shut forever. We must say farewell to all the ordinary people, because after all, ordinary people never existed to begin with.
People are extraordinary. God has stamped us all with His image and made each of us unique. It’s easy to forget sometimes. Especially living in a world where scientists tell us we evolved from advanced species of bacteria in a universe that doesn’t care about our survival and didn’t have us in mind in the first place. We’re cosmic accidents according to them.
But we can’t just blame the scientists for devaluing our humanity, we do it to ourselves. Our sin has led to broken relationships, and our day to day interactions with one another can often cause an unhealthy familiarity to fester. The result has been ordinary people flooding into our cities by the bus loads and the worst part about it is we paid for their tickets.
Its time for us to say goodbye and recapture a biblical perspective on the value of other people and one of my all time favorite quotes by C.S. Lewis is going to help us do it.
In The Weight of Glory he says,
“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 can 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 other of these destinations.”
Lewis is reminding us here of two very important things.
- Every single person you ever meet, regardless of how you feel towards them, will one day radiate the glories of Heaven or the horrors of Hell.
- Every single day you are influencing people towards one of these two destinations.
If you’re anything like me you’ve dropped the ball in the area of evangelism and love towards other image bearers. We’ve surrounded ourselves with ordinary people so that we don’t feel guilty for not reaching out. Lewis is offering us a remedy, but the remedy requires repentance. We must be willing to admit our wrongs and recieve Gods grace in this area to move forward.
He finishes by saying,
“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit- immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.”
Although our sin has broken our relationship with others and with God, Jesus came to bring reconciliation and restoration. By His grace we can begin to see and treat people for who they really are. So lets say farewell together, and begin to say hello.
Shine the Light and Write 