The majesty of our humanity and the capabilities laid out within us are nothing short of marvelous; so much so that we are barely cognizant of it. All of us run thick with untapped potential. We are rich with possibility and formidably equipped to tease the cusp of the impossible and to overcome it in the teasing. The essence of our being is immense beyond words and the breadth of it eclipses any syntax to frame it all. Despite the incomprehensible complexity of it all, the entirety of this essence is precisely consolidated and ingeniously joined so that the full measure of it might be released without any of it wasted or missed in the releasing. We are crafted to enhance all that exists around us and to make everything immeasurably more than what is. We are marvelous in ways so grand that such marvel escapes us although it resides right within each of us. Indeed, we are created in just this way.
This potential is not something of muse, as we might presume it to be since we tend to see so little of it. It’s not some hollow ideal that is more the trappings of some imaginative author who spins such ideas because they don’t have the courage to face the realities of who or what we really are. This is not about some feeble attempt to bolster our belief in ourselves as we watch the worst of ourselves create a world that we’re turning into the worst of itself. This potential is real. Very real. It may visit us rarely as it is much easier to access the lesser side of ourselves. But, it is real and it is always waiting.
Playground Feuds and Turf Wars
We have misplaced the majesty of our humanity in the lesser battles that we readily (and rather ignorantly) join. We cast ourselves as heroes selflessly battling for the soul of a community, a family or a nation when in fact we are engaged in playgrounds feuds of no greater importance than those played out on elementary playgrounds. We lay claim to some turf, which is less about what the turf might actually be and more about the fact that it’s turf (whatever it might be). We see ourselves on some colossal pilgrimage born of calling or destiny or the rallying of the masses against some great evil, however we have justified it. It must be pointed out that at times the pilgrimages are in fact colossal and of significant importance, but too many times what’s colossal is the appetite of our egos verses the worthiness of the venture. And so, too often we engage in these dirty little mongering turf wars that are more the stuff of mud-slinging than anything that might raise up humanity or change the course of history itself.
We wallow in the bane of blustering banter and then we gorge it fat on reckless arguments whose goal is to win, with us long having forgotten what exactly it is that we’re trying to win. Everything becomes a tit-for-tat circus of push and shove that might be attributed to two toddlers fighting over a toy that neither of them really wants in the first place. The focus becomes on finding some weakness, some point of hidden vulnerability, some crack in the proverbial armor that we can exploit in the pursuit of pursuing. We want to posture ourselves as some sort of valiant and sturdy victor, and if perchance we fall to the throes of defeat we then position ourselves as the victimized victim whose defeat clearly illustrates the impenetrable validity of their cause. And in the depravity and insanity of all of this we have misplaced the majesty of our humanity and we have wholly abandoned our calling.
To Reclaim Our Majesty
Might it be time to be accountable to who we’ve become so that we can make ourselves accountable to what we can be? Are we willing to divest ourselves of all the lesser things that we have elevated as greater things and engage in both a pointed and painful evaluation of who we’ve become? And once we’ve done that, are we brave enough to look at the damage that we’re incurred in the becoming? Can we relinquish our claim to whatever bit of turf we’ve claimed and lay our playground feuds to rest in deference to a cause far greater than the tiny space that we occupy? Can we shake ourselves out of ourselves sufficiently to wake up to the far greater things that lay ‘round about us? Can we begin to see others as less enemies and more people whose differing views may inform our own? At what point we will understand that partnership and camaraderie must be preserved even when differences of beliefs or opinions would do their level best to blast us into warring camps? When will we forfeit what we’ve become in order to become something so vastly superior to what we’ve become?
It’s not that such a shift is impossible (despite the fact that the behaviors exhibited in our world might suggest otherwise). But in the face of the reckless insanity all around us, will we dare to dare? Will we raise ourselves up to embrace the fullness of our humanity? Will we cast off the scourge of selfish agendas and the saber-rattling born of insatiable egos? Will we be what we’ve chosen not to be at whatever cost we might pay to do so, recognizing that the cost of not doing so is far, far greater? Will we shed all that we’ve become to become all that we can be? In essence, will be reclaim the majesty of our humanity as it was created and tenderly fashioned to be?
I Believe
I am utterly confident in our ability to do all of those things. I have great hope in humanity. I have even greater hope in the God that bestowed us with abilities that in fact mirrored His own. And for that reason, I have a pervading and insatiable hope. Though some might say so, I do not believe that kind of hope to be misplaced. I believe in us; in you and me. I believe that we have not done well, but I believe we can yet do very well. I believe in something better. I believe that we can join together in a mutual assault on the mounting challenges in our world instead of engaging in mounting assaults on each other. I believe, and I hope that everyone of us might join me in that belief. And in that joining might we rigorously inventory how we can be different. And then let us go and begin the process of making things different. Let us reclaim the majesty of our humanity in the care of humanity.
Craig Lounsbrough
M. Div., LPC