Harmony not harm
A devotional reflecting on how we are to show our love to others not by causing harm but being in harmony with God and each other.
SCRIPTURE:
Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. —Romans 13:10—
Live in harmony with one another. —Romans 12:16a—
THOUGHT:
It continually amazes me that scripture is not “singular”. Sometimes, we use scripture for our own selfish motives, often out of context, and to meet a need or goal we have in mind. In researching for this devotional though, I started noticing, almost for the first time, that each letter, each line, each stanza is closely knit together with a sense of “wholeness” and that not one word can be changed without affecting the overall true and Godly meaning. His Holy Word is divinely inspired and is meant to be accepted into our souls as a “breath” of Him. To be inspired fully and completely. We don’t choose which breath we are going to take in. We just ……breathe. In fact, when we start having difficulty breathing, it is typically because something is wrong.
In the scriptures above, we see that IF you do harm to someone, then you are not loving. One would assume that if you truly want to love someone, you try your best not to harm them. The inverse equation rings true again. Then….you see Gods’ Word connect one word to another, one concept to another. Notice the second scripture – “harm” is part of the word “harmony”. In order to live in harmony with someone, you cannot do them harm. So, if you do not harm them, then you are loving, and then you can live together in harmony, helping each other, supporting each other, loving each other.
On the news this weekend, I heard of a story of young people (God loves them too and I was, long ago, one of them) having COVID parties. They gather together in large groups and put money into a pot. Whoever can claim they get COVID “first” from this gathering, then wins the bounty. Are you kidding me? Well, one could say that they are just young and stupid. One could say it is a sign of immaturity and childish ignorance. Well, you could say that but I believe it is more than that. They are willing to harm, and therefore they are not in harmony. They may believe they are in harmony in their quest to win some creepy reward….but they are not.
If they are choosing to perpetrate such a hurtful and dangerous feat, then they are choosing to harm. They may start out in “harmony” in their party, yet the end outcome is “harm”. They have butchered Gods’ words into the reversal of the intention. They have degraded the word and concept of HARMony into HARM.
Still…before you think I am picking on one group of people, please consider my motives, your motives, and the motives of the whole. Do we realize that when we do not live in harmony, that we are harming someone? When you leave someone out of a conversation, are you living in harmony? Or harming them because they then feel left out or ostracized? When you make assumptions about someone due to race, skin color, religion, sexual preference, abilities, etc. are you living in harmony with them or making judgments that are unsubstantiated and harmful? Suppose you do not associate with those who are “dumb” or “fat” or “poor” or whatever. Are you harming them when you do not allow them into your world of so-called harmony?
Sometimes I believe that we think of harmony as getting along with whomever we CHOOSE. If we like them, if we have something in common with them, if we feel comfortable with them, then it is OK. To exist with our own selfish choices, is to live the opposite of the concept of harmony. It does not challenge us if we are only looking into a mirror that condones our own behaviors. In fact maybe, just maybe, choices, when it comes to people, shouldn’t be the parameters that we utilize to guide us. Maybe, just maybe, if we are allowing ourselves to live in harmony, with inclusion and with a love for ALL of Gods’ people, then we are definitively demonstrating the meaning of NOT harming someone. Are we able to look into our deepest preset mindsets and decide – “Am I leaving someone out?” “Am I purposefully or inadvertently segregating myself from a type of person?” Or…”Am I reaching out and pulling in those who are different than myself?” Can I sit down with a fat person on the airplane and not make a rude comment or a heavy, ‘disgusted’ sigh as I give them ‘the look’?” “Have I ever gone to a church where I am in the racial minority?” “Do I sigh in exasperation when someone is less than talented in math or cannot speak well or struggles to read something that is written in a lower elementary level?”
There are countless examples of how we harm, by not living in FULL harmony with each other. Yet, I must openly admit to you that I struggle with this every day. Why do I turn away from certain opportunities? Why do I not proactively choose to reach out to someone? Why? Sometimes I know the answer, although I am not willing to be direct and open. Sometimes I don’t know the answer.
Whatever the question OR answer is, we need to strive for harmony and not harm. God challenges us every day in the scriptures, if we choose to read them and INSPIRE them. Jesus sat down with prostitutes, and adulterers, and lepers, and holier-than-thou educated men, and children, and thieves.
I don’t believe it was an accident that there were two thieves on either side of Jesus when He died. One was there to cause harm. One was there to realize that Jesus was his Savior and I believe that he, now, and at the moment he INSPIRED his last breath, he is living in HARMONY with Jesus in Heaven.
PRAYER:
Help me God. Help me with my own mindsets, with my own prejudices, my own background, and my choices. Help me to never harm someone else. Yet, if I do harm someone, open my eyes to the situation and give me courage to rectify the situation. Guide me in my choices to not do anything that purposefully could hurt someone. Help me to harmonize all my thoughts, my voices, my talents, and Your Gifts. Help me.
AMEN.
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