"The thief comes to steal, to kill and to destroy. I come to give life and to give it abundantly".
John 10:10
An interesting cartoon made an appearance on Face Book this week. It illustrated a 'Western' woman, dressed in a bikini, walking passed a Muslim woman, wearing a garment from head to foot, and both were shown as thinking that they were sorry about the 'oppression' of the other. It's a simplistic approach to a matter, fraught with all manner of assumptions regarding what is pious and promiscuous, liberating and demeaning, but it opens an opportunity for reflection.
Human nature allows us to truly value or greatly demean ourselves, others and the world around us, so the real question we face is what motivates us to respond and behave in either a constructive or despoiling fashion?
We'd all like to think of ourselves as captains as our own souls, doing those things we determine we wish to do for our good, but even on an entirely natural level, we know this not to be the case. Fortune, in terms of the events which shape our status, health and the like, can change in moments and at any time, and even those who work hard to understand and advise as experts in particular fields can be brushed aside in moments by calamity, as events often show, but there are other, deeper issues to consider. We clearly have a propensity to 'de-fault' either to behavior that is damaging or, at a deeper level, to attitudes towards perhaps both ourselves and others that is equally if not more destructive, and the problems do not end there. Christ speaks of an enemy who preys upon these very weaknesses to truly hollow us and decimate all that is of value with regards to our lives. We are, when honest, aware of the agony of this condition - the war which rages and ravages a world which should be so much more - that is the awareness behind our better aspirations and desires. We long, not to be severed from beauty, from the astonishing sweetness of all the good in life, but to see this without the slavery of corruption.
Truth and beauty are evidenced when what is expressed derives from something deeper than arrogance or pretense. Modesty, for example, is not a question of 'how much' or 'how little' is shown, as in the cartoon, but what is behind the expression itself. Perhaps a person is unclothed because of vanity, but someone can be exact in all their attire and behavior for exactly the same reason.
Working in photography with some truly remarkable people has powerfully reminded me, again and again, that what we truly want, beyond all the shouting, the machinery, the paraphernalia of what we often deem important, is something wonderful and remarkable - a true connection and enriching of each other. So often, our blindness and selfishness mars such splendor, but that is surely part of what we are here to do - to convey to each other that manner of beauty.
It's all to easy to fall into the dull entrapment of stereotypes and their hold upon us. What's needed is life which challenges us to break beyond such bonds and truly be free - to love and to be deeply loved.
