Division

 

DIVISION. everywhere at every level you look there is division and barriers between people.

Both by rules placed upon us externally and from within.

Division between Australia and the rest of the world

Division between Victoria and the rest of Australia

Division between Melbourne and regional VIC, to the point that 'we don't want Melbourne people here'

Division between virus free and virus hotspot towns

Division between those with masks and those without masks (even those medically exempt) to point of discrimination from entering shops

Division between friends and family

Division between those who think the government is doing a good job and those who do not

Division between the people and the police

All people are created in the image of God and the face is a big part of this, it is important for communication.

All this is breaking down community. E.g. Nice little things that I think seem to have been disappearing/reducing

- saying a friendly hello as you pass a stranger in the street

- letting someone else in front in the queue at the shops

- letting someone in in traffic

- stopping to let a pedestrian walk across the road

These small things disappearing are signs that as a society we're shifting, we're becoming more and more individual and seeing others with fear and suspicion instead of compassion and kindness.

Do what you've got to do, endure what you must endure, but in the midst of it, choose kindness and compassion, not fear and suspicion !! Choose to show kindness to all you meet even if there are barriers everywhere to doing so. Choose to overcome those barriers.

And may this division not infiltrate the church... May that be the place where unity is held most tightly.

"that we may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that the Father sent Jesus and loved us even as He loved Jesus" - John 17