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Can You Love If You Do Not Know?

Yet another shooting, yet another bomb, yet another tragedy where innocent lives are lost.

Everyone feels so strongly that they have the right views. I don't even want to make a public

comment about what we should do after the recent bombings in Iraq and Turkey, the Nice attack,

the spate of heartbreaking shootings in America or even the politically driven beatings of even

women in Zimbabwe. My heart breaks every time I read of yet another tragedy and I cannot

fathom how people have it in them to hurt others so deeply. It makes me feel so helpless.

How do we change this endless cycle of violence against each other?

I was struck one evening watching The Daily Show, the satirical news show that Trevor Noah

hosts, when he reacted to police involved shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota, making a

fascinating point that so clearly defines our world right now: "If you are ‘pro-Black Lives

Matter,’ you're assumed to be ‘anti-police,’ and if you are ‘pro-police,’ then you surely hate

black people. It seems that its either pro-cop and anti-black or pro-black and anti-cop when in

reality you can be pro-cop AND pro-black, which is what we should all be."

Our world is becoming increasingly polarized by the day. If you are pro-something, you are

automatically assumed to be anti-something else, and when that involves a group of people that

can be devastating. Additionally, it continues to separate us as human beings further into

different categories, the natural result being that we only know about the group we are for, and

therefore ‘who we are supposed to be against.’

The only way to bridge this gap is by getting to know someone. The Biblical term for intimate

love is the same word as 'to know.' We can only love others if we know them. If Jesus teaches us

to love others as we love ourselves, implicitly He is asking us to know others and to know

ourselves. No one is perfect. We all are in deep need of God's grace and for us to be people of

Jesus, it means we need to cross over to the other side and actually get to know people: People

who act and look different than us; people who have different skin colour, different beliefs, and

different political views than ourselves. You don't have to agree with someone to love them, but

you do need to get to know them, because without knowing them you wont be able to love

them.

All of this comes down to one simple truth: All of humanity is God's creation. All people are

people who were created in God's image, and whether they acknowledge His existence or are

actively rebelling against him, they remain His beloved just the same. God’s pursuit to show love

towards those who follow Him runs just as deep for those who are not following Him. The Bible

repeatedly says God does not play favourites, and we need to embrace that reality as deeply true.

Why is this reality true? Because He knows each of us intimately and therefore loves us deeply.

This is what people need. We need to get to really know each other so we can really start loving

each other, whether we agree with each other or not.

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