{"id":318,"date":"2010-11-01T00:53:03","date_gmt":"2010-11-01T00:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ultimatejoy.wordpress.com\/?p=318"},"modified":"2010-11-01T00:53:03","modified_gmt":"2010-11-01T00:53:03","slug":"barriers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/?p=318","title":{"rendered":"Barriers"},"content":{"rendered":"

My friend\u2019s father died on Monday.\u00a0 She was understandably upset at her dad\u2019s passing.\u00a0 He was her daddy, a friend, a comforting beacon in a world of insecurity.<\/p>\n

To offer comfort and support, I went to the funeral and burial.<\/p>\n

Only one slight concern, my friend is Jewish.\u00a0 Being a Christian, I\u2019d never been to a Jewish funeral.\u00a0 I was a bit nervous going thinking, \u201cWould I fit in?\u00a0 Would they let me in?\u00a0 What if I unknowingly did something that was inappropriate or offensive?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Emotional, moving, profound, the service was an ocean of memories \u2013 a loving marriage, nurturing family and a successful career.\u00a0 The reading of the 23rd<\/sup> Psalm (The Lord is My Shepherd)<\/em> magically made some of the differences between our religions melt away.\u00a0 And, thankfully, I didn\u2019t do anything out of step with the other mourners.<\/p>\n

In Luke 13, the rich young ruler asks \u201cWhat do I have to do to gain eternal life?\u201d\u00a0 Christ asks him what does the law say and he responds, \u201cLove the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’\u201d\u00a0 But when the ruler asks, \u201cWho is my neighbor, he hoped for an easy answer.\u00a0 In typical fashion, Christ explains through the parable of the Good Samaritan that our neighbor is everyone.\u00a0 As my pastor is fond of saying, \u201cYou have never locked eyes with someone who doesn\u2019t matter to God,\u201d<\/p>\n

When I made my decision to attend the funeral, I only saw a woman, my friend, who was hurting and mattered to God.\u00a0 In this instance, I was called to be the hands and feet of Christ and did it by crossing a religious barrier; one that seemed minimized by our mutual sadness.<\/p>\n

Please don\u2019t let a day go by without taking the time, creativity, energy and risk to speak love to another human being.\u00a0 Tell them exactly how valued they are regardless of what barriers \u2013 social, racial, religious, economic \u2013 you need to cross to do that.\u00a0 Let that be our mission:\u00a0 to be kind to one another and to smile with each other through the tears.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I love the idea of living in a world where we see all people as immeasurably loved by God.\u00a0 I\u2019d sign up for a world like that everyday!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My friend\u2019s father died on Monday.\u00a0 She was understandably upset at her dad\u2019s passing.\u00a0 He was her daddy, a friend, a comforting beacon in a world of insecurity. To offer comfort and support, I went to the funeral and burial. Only one slight concern, my friend is Jewish.\u00a0 Being a Christian, I\u2019d never been to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,4,5],"tags":[6,11,48,18,24,26],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}