I’ve discovered that I have become insincere. It’s not like I intended to be this way, but it’s the result of a drift over time. Specifically, I’ve tried to use the phrase, “I have a Mulsim friend” as some kind of currency. In other words, as a way to elevate myself I have pointed at an honorable thing I am doing as a way to look more forward-thinking than I really am.
This myth is officially considered busted.
The truth is, this person is a co-worker and outside of some dialogue a few months about God, Jesus, and the treatment of Muslims in this country, we haven’t spoken much recently. More importantly, though, I haven’t been over to their home and met the family. I’ve not been a part of their life at all. This person has asked for my advice in regards to professional matters, but I have asked them nothing. Is this person really a friend I have? I don’t think so. This is a co-worker and not much more than that.
I grew up in the South and heard a similar phrase pretty frequently.In this case, it was “I have a Black friend”. It was used in the same way, a way to gain some currency in the community. It was a badge saying, “See, I’m not racist, I have friends that are different from me.” But all of us knew whether it was genuine or not.
One good thing I can say about the ICoC subculture is that attempts were made demonstrate real brotherhood across racial and ethnic lines. It later became a propaganda tool as well, but in places the KNN cameras and Geographic Sector Leaders feared to tread, real brotherhood was forged. (And I’m not talking about the gerrymandering to artifically create diverse Singles and College households. This is the real thing where two people from two different worlds share their lives together. There are so many great stories in these places.)
Who is my neighbor? Luke 10:29-37 could have easily been told today like this:
But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus took up the question and said: “A man was walking to his car and got mugged. The mugger took his wallet, car keys, and even his shoes. Then the mugger beat him up, and fled, leaving him on the sidewalk. An evangelist, on his way to seminar, happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. In the same way, a local minister, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But an illegal alien, came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion. He went over to him and tended to him as best he could. Then he put him in his own car and brought him to a hospital. Before leaving, he put four hundred dollars in the man’s pocket.
“Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”
“The one who showed mercy to him,” he said.
Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”
The old answer for me would have been to try and make five new friends that are not like me. It’s pretty childish to do that, mainly because this method did nothing but make me feel better. What I can do, however, is look for ways to help others. This is the working a soup kitchen type of thing, though that’s a great way to serve others. I mean the kinds of things that happen as you go through life. You can buy a couple gallons of gas for the person behind you, offer a kind word to someone grieving, the possibilities are endless. It’s not that these smaller gestures are great in and of themselves. It’s that the practice of the small things prepares us for doing the ‘big’ things.
His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
Mat 25:23