At Arm's Length

In America, we have a space requirement for comfort and well-being. You may not even realize it until you get out into a crowd, but its there and you feel like you're entitled to it. You say, "excuse me," but you really mean, "get your carcass out of my way." In your car you use your horn politely to let people know they are holding you up from getting to your destination in a timely manner. You expect that people will not cut you in line, you expect that there will be a line as well and that it will have well defined borders and that your waiting time in said line will not be too taxing on your schedule.

This is all good and well and helpful for a streamlined society to get things done in a orderly fashion, but the fault is that it is man's construct. God makes the rules for real and He knows exactly what kind of rules we need. He says bizarre things like, Love your neighbor and Turn the other cheek and Give away your stuff if somebody needs it. Those things aren't so hard to do when I like my neighbor or I don't really want that stuff anymore anyway. Love is a difficult thing to do when you must embrace the unlovely, the unlikable, the mean and hurtful. Our natural reaction when someone invades our space is to shut down, close up shop. We react through inaction. Cease and desist. But God's love is full of action and so should ours be.