Understanding

I don’t know if it is my age or the fact that I have spent a lot of time out of the country, but I just don’t understand a lot of what is going on around me. I am not just talking about the macro issues of politics, pandemic, and cultural divisions. I’m pretty sure that few people understand what is going on in those areas, although many people say they understand.

I am confused about the things people talk about around me. I am not sure where people are coming from. It often takes me days of thinking about spoken words for understanding to come, even on a limited basis.

Have you had that experience? Even on a limited basis? Am I the only confused person out there? Is everyone else living on a higher plane?

I don’t think that I am the only one. I think we all feel a sense of disconnection with others. Some of us feel this less than others, but the disconnection is real. It is like we are trying to speak over or through a wall between us. In one sense that is okay as we are not all alike. On the other hand we need to break through these walls to understand each other and displace our biases in order to truly love one another.

Jesus has broken down the walls of prejudice and can make us understand one another in love. The apostle Paul wrote, “But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility”. Ephesians 2:13-14 ESV