It was a typical night at the local Kingdom Hall. People were coming in and visiting, looking for seats and laying down publications to mark where they would sit. People were shaking hands, and the conversation was mixed. This couple was talking about their new grandchild, this other was talking about an experience in field service and then another was speaking about a topic in the news. As I walked along, I entered into a group of men speaking about a major storm in the east. As we spoke, someone mentioned that over 500 people had died. I thought that was terrible, and was shocked with the next statement made by a man in the group, "were any of them Witnesses?"
That was it, wasn't it! No matter what happened in the world. Whether it was a earthquake in our own town or a land slide in India, we heard one thing each time, "were any of them Witnesses?" It was so common, that many times I never gave it a second thought. It was just normal! Did this show love of neighbor, like they mentioned all the time from the platform, or did it show a "limited love" for only those to whom we thought had God's favor?
In my life I have learned that life means something, not based on religion, but on the fact that everyone has a value. It does not matter what God they worship or what land they live in, it just matter that they breath and exist on this planet with us. They suffer the same whether their skin is black, white or reddish ... they cry the same tears whether they are doing them in the comfort of Buddha, Jehovah, Jesus or Spirit. In all, their heart beats and they breath the same air as me and you. It might sound so simple, but it can be a hard habit to break, what habit is that?
The habit of thinking in a group or click in this world. To think that a certain group has more value then others, or to think that you should have more empathy for a group then for another. I personally see some traits of this in me still, and I do my best to correct them when they surface. I want the world to know in my actions, that I am not some snob who feels a certain group deserves special treatment. I let them know this through my actions in my new life.
Now some may say, "but I do have a passion for certain causes, they are personal to me." I understand this, and it makes sense. I wonder though, are their limits in your passion based on a past life experience, or would it help to allow your eyes to get wider open to see what many other people could benefit from you compassion to help? Just a question we can ask ourselves, and answer on our own.
As I set their in the evening of my live and watched the news of the world events. It came to a story about 40 people killed in a country I have never been, with people I had never met, and I did not think "I wonder if they were this faith or this color." No, all I could think about was the pain they must have felt and the emptiness their families probably felt at their loss. No longer is my compassion and feelings tainted with the thought "Were they Witnesses!!" No, it is enlightened with the love that "I know they are human beings" that loved, lived and now they are no more.
A tear without judgment forms and falls from the heart that is no longer cold.
My thought
Dragon