mortals

"You're such a character," my grandma has told me my entire life. She meant it endearingly, but I find myself thinking that of people in a less than endearing way. 

I hear some person's name and I groan inside, because they make life unnecessarily complicated; as if that person is "just" a speedbump to progress, "just" a catalyst for conflict, or "just" a strange character thrown in my story for comedy's sake.

There is much wrong with this. For instance—"my story." Whoever said it was mine anyway? In Crazy Love, Francis Chan compares our self-centeredness to the guy who tells his friends to come see a movie "about him," when in reality he was just an extra. He was the back of a head; the face that walks by the screen pushing a stroller. We are the same, in a way, because this isn't our story. We have parts, but we are part of a whole. Who are we to treat others as side characters?

At the same time, we are not just extras. This story has a lot more dimensions than any movie screen could tell. Each person is a dimension. Each soul is a reflection of the image of God—with some images more mended by grace than others.

As Lewis said,

"It is a serious thing…to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may [in Heaven] be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship… It is in the light of [this]…that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no 'ordinary' people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.

…it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously — no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner…" (The Weight of Glory)

Per usual, the Apostle Paul recommends a different way of living for followers of Jesus: "…as servants of God we commend ourselves…by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities…labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God…" 

We are to be known by this endurance—through hunger and sorrow. And, he says, we are to be known by our truthfulness, patience and real love. With that, he ends his exhortation: "Widen your hearts." (2 Cor. 6:4-13)

There are no mere speedbumps, no mere court-jesters, no mere mortals. We are surrounded by images of God, if our hearts are wide enough to see them.