Have you heard a story about the city on the hill? The power in our differences
Hello friends,
Today I steal my motivation from a story told in a song by the casting crown, the album was called Come to the well it was realized 2011.
This is how the lead vocalist of the cast crown band John Mark Hall summarized this song. It "draws a picture of two old men sitting and talking about the city on the hill." He explained: "They're trying to remember what happened to the city on the hill because it's not there anymore. As they weave through the stories, they remember the warriors thought everyone was weak so they went off and started their own city. The dancers didn't think everyone had enough spirit so they went off and started their own city. It's an allegory of the factions of the modern Church(communities and societies), the people often dwelling upon non-essentials and personal taste to go their own direction."
Disclaimer; I have removed some few sentences in quotation and I have added those few words in the bracket above to make it fit my context.
Also I must confess that I have a special feeling towards this song every time I listen to this song I get emotional. My subjective bias my have made more than what it is. However you can listen for yourself, to make a fitting judgement.
May be to you this is just a song or a story but in some peoples lives that is a reality. I have seen many marriages dissolved because of unresolved differences. Some business have collapsed because the parties involved could not live with each other differences. People have resigned job because of that. It is always our differences that divide us, even though our strength is hidden in our differences
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Lets go back to the article.
We live in the days of great diversities, options, opportunities, freedom with an exceptional of some few parts of the world, we live in days of great accessibility and connectivity, development in many sectors and technological advancement.
You would think all this would help us create better marriages, families and communities than of our ancestors. But the evidence speaks contrary, is not like all hope is lost but when you think of the future it gives you a chilling feeling.
It is the same with schools, work places, business and churches. People are more divided than connected, we rarely care for each other with passion but we just tolerate each other. We miss the best parts of humanity if not of diversity. Diversity is a blessing, diversity is wealth of talent, perceptions, personality and opinions. We need all these to make this city called universe to shine even brighter, to make the good and the best to become even better.
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The city on the hill shone brightly but everything faded away just because they turned their focus from the city to each other difference, without knowing it was the difference that made the city shine brightly. And The difference was by design not by default it was meant to serve them not to divide. But each one thought can be better alone, it was a lie. Every one took his own way to be alone shinning star, that never happened not only the city lost its splendor but also individuals lost their splendor too.
This is what happens, when we pretend we do not need nobody to live in this world. This world is made better by all of us not just some of us. So the ecosystem of the society demands differences to survive.
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It is time for men to stop think of women as second class humans, but humans who holds the same value as male, their worthy, they have rights, potentials, talents, dreams and can contribute very much in making the world or our society better. Women have feelings, but they have brains too, they have personality and character. Women deserve men's respect. Women are special and they carry a special touch that you cannot find it in men, but you see it in everything they do. They impact lives by influencing us in so many simple ways you can hardly notice that, but it works and very powerful. If you want to know how much women are vital in the society, think about your mother. What do you feel about her, I bet you it is special. There may be exceptions to some of us but to the majority we have special feelings about our mothers.
On the flip side men also have suffered in recent years, many women have treated men as a necessary evil to live with. This habit of undermining men should stop, just because women are getting empowered now it does not mean men have become obsolete. This mentality will destroy our societies. A society needs both testosterone and estrogen, father and mother figure, it needs the reasoning of a man and the intuition of a woman. Both make a society complete.
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The other group that needs is the old and the young. The huge difference of age between the two creates frictions in so many areas for the two to work together for the good of society. Youth glory in their strength both physical and mental, the fire is always burning in them. The old have a different kind of strength, they glory in their wisdom. They may be weak physically, they may not think and act faster like youth, the may not be the most creative, innovative and revolutionary. But they are wise and more experienced.
A society needs the fire of the youth and the wisdom of the old, when the two cannot live and work together as a team, the society misses out. The energy of the youth will not produce anything of value for the society and the wisdom of the old will not guide and keep the society together.
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What should I say about race, it is even shame to mention it that in the 21century there people who still have this devilish mentality of one race being superior to the others. The worse type of poverty than any has ever been seen. God and the global needs all of us, living together in unity, love and mutual respect. It doesn't matter if you are black or white, brown or red, Indian or Arabic. We are all human we need each other to tend the earth, to solve our life challenges and to create great societies.
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The same thing goes to the rich and the poor, the weak and the strong, amateur and professionals. And the list goes on, it is too long to name each group but the idea is clear. Each one needs one.
I want my children and my grandchildren to down one day and talk how about how generation, built better systems, or achieves great success in sciences and technology, but also how we improved the condition of man and how we built great society that shone brightly in their path and lead them to be better people.
We can do this together, no matter how insignificant your contribution my appear into your eyes, it is important. Keep doing the right things, your touch is unique and much needed.
Thank you for the time you have taken to read this post.
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