"Once my father wrote to me that I should make it a habit, wherever I am, to look at every human being as a believer, never to doubt, never to talk differently with him/her. That resonated with my soul. When a Muslim is coming, I call him[/her] a believer; I never suppose that some should be a non-believer. The objective belief that God believes in me and I in God, because God believes in me, that is faith to me. But I say it quite simply: Every human being believes, because God believes...treat all people, regardless of their appearance, as dedicated to God...Do this for a number of years, then you will understand the Redeemer. Then you have passed through. To hate, to insult, to gossip, to curse, to judge, all of that we do not want to do anymore, not even when we meet the most evil person. We want to say: he has access to God, I want to remove the obstacles, as much as I can. God has come to him, he needs to be able to come to God."
-Christoph Blumhardt, Ansprachen
I read this quote earlier today in an article by J. Moltmann and it hasn't left my heart. How true it is that God 'believes' in all of us despite our own prejudice towards one another and for that I am so grateful. How beautiful it is that God approaches each one of us with love and compassion beyond our knowing. It is time to put behind us the destructive methods of control, i.e., 'the deification of imperial goals and the victimization and annihilation of indigenous peoples' (Ray) then to put in its place... 'Come Holy Spirit.' It is time to realize that power is not defined by our contemporary materialistic worldviews as control and oppression, rather it is defined in a counter intuitive manner through compassion and acceptance.
Lord, forgive us.
Amen.
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