There is one ocean, but many waves. Each wave has its own contour. Some say there are no two alike. Looking at the ocean one sees a body of water. It seems like one thing. The surfer sees a wave, great and inviting. The visitor sees the same wave as a crashing event able to change a beach and pushing back earth vegetation. All this is caused from the same ocean. A great snowstorm as viewed by the populace is seen as destructive of trees and power lines, but an artist gathered hundreds of snowflakes in the freezing weather and viewed them under a microscope. He found no two alike, but all were beautiful and part of one storm. In all this we gain something of insight about ourselves, far more complex in persons than waves or snow-flakes – from the total of all. At least we should sense as a guiding principle that as the end product is more than the sum of its parts, so the parts secrete something vital to the product and result. Interpretations come from variant directions. In future history reports, if my name is evaluated, and the facts are straight, I will be reported one way as an individual and another as a member of society. God treats all persons in the same light. Who is he, or she, in the light of the self, and what in the light of society? How is the person to bring a joining between personal and social health? What am I as a person, in relationship to God, and what am I in relationship with others in the light that God weighs lives in both elemental and compound concerns and performances? Human beings are so complex that only God can evaluate them. He does inform us what he is dealing with as his prerogative, and what we are dealing with that remaining. He does make a way out that fulfills his own character and integrity for himself and his creation.
So it is that a mature Christian accepts others to be whatever they have decided to be. This does not imply approval, so acceptance (tolerance) is presumed to be needed, in at least one or the other entity. In that we learn the truth about the concern perhaps attempting persuasion to accomplish improvement. We become models of what we want to see in others. We learn to persuade, learn how the systems of self and society work for good, lending support to those closest to what we stand for, so that no matter how different the wave, or the beauty of the snow flake, there is favorable impression on the whole. What is right and beautiful in any part that contributes to the whole? When there is freedom to choose one’s place in the process, as there is in humanity, responsibility shifts from the greater to the lesser. The larger may cause a destructive tsunami, but the wave may be magnificent. The wires may be down, and the trees fallen, but the snowflake is beautiful and pure. Life is full of the one and the many: the individual and the society. When balance is found for all factors, consequence is beneficial. Easy to assert: hard to believe.
The problem is between the one and the many. The river is vital for life along its route, but one break may cause disastrous flooding. The individual is responsible for his banks, the limited responsibility of his life. He can be the finger in the dike that resists the flood. This too has its guiding light in the context of a single life. Against all enemies, even against the continuity of the larger life ocean, one can influence for good in the way God makes repairs. Here is righteousness, love, fidelity, work, direction, containment, virtue, wisdom and prayer – with their various sub forces. In the force of a raging sea, the wave drives a generator for good, or washes up to help clear the beach of the trash from neglect and oversight. All persons should try to be and act in good will seeking right (righteous) context. They look out for others, respecting any helpful source for influence. We are concerned about our own performance in the light of truth. God makes that performance well defined in his word. To live by it is difficult when one feels the force of the whole ocean in some unwanted direction. As salmon sacrifices life, fighting for what is right for spawning and death, so insightful persons go in the holy direction – for good of all sometimes at personal cost. (Even doubters asked for prayer at the formation of the American government) All persons must accept some compromise in the ocean of society, without compromising self. We offer belief and model of the truths and values given of God, but gracious to accept the possible in the great ocean of human beliefs and conduct, leaving God to sift out the results. Personal faith in personal grace is right. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020