Priceless and what she taught me

For many my opening statement will cause them to basically ignore the rest of my post. Acknowledging that sentiment - God spoke to me in a dream last night. It wasn't a flashy thing that woke me up from my deep sleep. It wasn't even something I noticed right away, but it was clearly there for me to learn from. God was trying to teach me how He viewed those "on the other side." It may, or may not, suprise you.

I will tell you the dream first and then how God revealed His message to me. (This is not a fictional story; this is the actual dream I had last night.)

I was standing at a rally or signing for some pro-life piece of legislation. I do not remember the exact law, but it was a big win for those on the pro-life side. There at the rally, down from the podium where the politicians were speaking were the two crowds: pro-life and pro-choice.

I was there with some fellow pro-life advocates. We were having a good time cheering with signs supporting the new law. Beside us I saw a group of pro-choice advocates clearly disappointed and upset with the new law.

Somehow I made my way into the pro-choice group. I started having a discussion with them. Voices never got raised and it was a civil discussion, especially with one young lady off to the side. She seemed to be the leader of the pro-choice side there. She was an attractive woman, seemingly in her late 20's, early 30's with strawberry blonde hair.

While I was there discussing the issue with her and some other pro-choice supporters, some of them got angry at me. One ripped my sign out of my hands and crumpled it up. I made some joke and smiled at him. They looked at each other in amazement and said, "He is smiling at us even though we are insulting him." (At that point they were calling me names and such.)

But the young lady to the side remained civil the entire time. We had a passionate, but friendly discussion of the issues and our differences. Neither one of us changed our mind, but in the short time we grew to respect one another.

As the rally drew to a close, I lost sight of the woman for a moment until I saw her walking away. I ran after her. I saw her and I said, "My name is Aaron, I never caught your name." She called back, "My name is Priceless." I said, "Priceless, huh? I don't think I can forget that."

She started walking away again. By this time I was running trying to catch up with her. Even though she was walking and I was running I could never catch up to her. I called out, "Priceless, I would really like to pray with you." She kept walking toward her car. At this point, I was about to say, "I'm not trying to hit on you or anything. I'm married," but I woke up right before I said that.

I was lying in bed thinking, "Wow, that was an odd dream. And Priceless, that is such a strange name." I just kept mulling the dream over and replaying the whole thing in my mind until I was in the shower. I was praying and it hit me - "Priceless, God that is exactly how you view her and everyone else that is pro-choice. You view all the people that I view too often as enemies that way."

I loose sight of that fact on a recurring basis. Consistently I regard someone I disagree with politically, socially or spiritually as my enemy, but that is not the case. They are not the enemy. God has told me who the real enemy is and He has told me that He views each human as priceless.

So I spent much of the drive to work praying for Priceless, if she is a real person. I prayed that God would reveal Himself to her and that she would find peace and love in Him. Then I prayed the same thing for all of the people that I encounter on a regular basis with whom I disagree.

I also want to apologize to those of you I disagree with. If I have ever made you feel less than priceless in the eyes of God I apologize. Understand that though we differ on issues and though you may not even believe in God, He still views you as priceless and seeks you, desiring a relationship with you.

You can take it or leave it for what it is worth, but understand this God considers you priceless whether you know it or not.

Comments

[seeker]

Wow. You're setting the bar high. Interestingly, God has been trying to tell me the same, but human nature being what it is, I'm not so keen on it.

I have been studying the book of James for the last months, and I am realizing that the wise person is much kinder than I am. Not returning jab for jab, nor trying to create arguments is very hard. Treating other people w/ respect while they disrespect you is not easy. But I guess God's standards are above ours.

I do think there are a few caveats - I mean, even Jesus called some people religious hypocrites, snakes, and liars. And the Apostle Paul, referring to those who required circumcision for new xians, said that he wished they would go the whole way and cut their entire you-know-whats off. However, Paul also entreated us this way:

And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.

But to me, James is very clear:

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.....But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.

[Louis]

Oh, yeah, right, anyone who disagrees with you has been possessed by Satan.

And to Aaron: maybe she's "priceless" because there's no way you can gain her for your side.

[Evil_Lonnie]

Aaron,

Though we may disagree about the source of your dream, I do not doubt its impact on you or power of its message.

Whatever the source, I think you have touched upon a very powerful idea. While the shrill may get noticed, they hardly ever achieve their goals of changing other's behavior or understnanding. It is only through understanding and reason that someone will open up and listen.

"Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin" (may be misquoted) seems to come to mind.

Cheers. I hope it leads you home.

[seeker]

Or to put it in more PC terms, love the person, hate the sin.

[Aaron]

Never said I wanted to "gain her for my side." I want her (and you) to find ultimate fulfillment, peace and joy. I believe that can come only through a relationship with God through Jesus. But it is not about getting anyone to my side, it is about realizing the value of the other person regardless of their political, social or spiritual circumstances.

No, I haven't gone crazy even though this post may make it seem as such. I don't really do dreams and visions - never really had one. I really don't even know if this was such a thing. I just know that God used it, like most everything, to teach me.

And just in case you were wondering, I did not have spicy food before I went to bed that night.

[seeker]

Scripturally speaking, God speaks to people in many ways - through dreams, visions, preachers and prophets, through the written words of scripture, through nature, even through unbelievers and donkeys!

[Louis]

Don't forget wall graffitti.

But as to Aaron's comment: I am constantly amazed that, after millennia of judgement and condemnation, of persecution and oppression, of continued vehement opposition to even the most elementary of human rights legislation, christians can still make such asinine statements to gay people. How, exactly, is your religion going to give me "ultimate fulfillment, peace and joy" unless it lobotomize me? If it can deliver this, it must truly be a cult where no thinking is necessary or allowed. I identify christianity (along with the other monotheisms and crypto-religions) as among the most toxic influences in my life because they spread and enforce the evil of homophobia throughout our culture:

"For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error."

"Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders"

"If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them"

Perverts, deviants, "objectively disordered," evil, mentally ill, sexually malajusted - all from your precious "god of love." Yes, christianity is fine for heterosexual supremacists, but not for gays or people who value justice.

You're either so brainwashed as to be incapable of realizing what you're saying or just plain stupid and malicious.

whatever

[seeker]

Well, as I mentioned, xianity is almost singlehandedly responsible for the abolition movement in the west.

But xianity makes a distynction between human rights and immorality. Being black isn't a sin.

[Louis]

fuck off

[Stewart]

Seeker, it's interesting that you cite the example of abolition; it's a strong example of how you confabulate your own truth to support your existing beliefs.

You are not the intellectual heir to abolitionists, and claiming that you are is opportunistic and repugnant. Of all the religous groups in America, Southern Baptists were the last to accept abolition. The original Southern Baptist Convention supported the institution of slavery explicitly, by citing dozens of verses from your Bible. The large majority of white Southern Baptists only accepted the abolition of slavery after they were forced to by the bloodiest war in American history.

Claiming that Christians were "singlehandedly responsible for the abolition movement" is akin to saying that white people were singlehandedly responsible for abolition. It's largely true, but it denies the actual context of history. The truth is that white people did end slavery in the United States, but white Southern Baptists were not among them.

Among Christian denominations who did take an early, proactive stance against slavery were the liberal Congregationalists in the North. Their intellectual heirs, as you may know, are the United Church of Christ. The UCC is famous today, most notably, for its support of gay rights and same-sex marriage. Your church still labels these people with intentionally-pejorative words like "sinner" and "pervert" which rob their targets of dignity and serve to make the labellers feel superior.

Times change, but some things are suprisingly consistent.

[Louis]

You're wasting your time, Stewart. These people are beyond reasoning and evidence.

[Aaron]

Can there be like a Godwin's law for slavery issues?

Stewart, it is very true that far too many people, including Christians, supported slavery. But a lot more played into the choice to support the evil, most of it was selfishness by both the North and the South.

Many people in the North had slaves as well, but their economy did not need the huge number of laborers that the South's did. So it was very opportunistic for them to support abolition, where it was not so for the Southern.

Some were principled against slavery, many because of their Christian beliefs and many unfortunately did use Biblical slavery (more indentured servants who had to be freed with benefits after seven years) to justify the current slavery system (much more violent and repressive).

But to lump all Christians together because of this act, which the Southern Baptist denomination has repeatedly apologized for, is silly. You might as well say all atheists are communists and are responsible for the deaths of millions in Russia and China. That is not true and neither is conservative Christianity (especially current consevative Christians) responsible for slavery.

One could just as easily lay the blame at Democrats, since Southern Democrats are the ones who supported slavery and opposed civil rights in the early 1900's.

I have so much I can say on this so I am going to write a post on it. (Thansk for the inspiration.)

But to your point about calling people "sinners." Do you still not get that? I call myself a sinner. Everyone, according to the biblical view, is sinful. Every worldview has to somehow accomodate for that. We all do things that are wrong (lie, steal, etc.) We may justify it or excuse it. We may say that on the whole we do more good than bad, but that doesn't erase the bad.

One can be (and is) both a sinner and priceless to God. To think it any other way is to either rob God of his love and mercy or blind ourselves to our own failings.

Louis, one could say the same about either of you. Many times instead of engage in dialogue you would rather dismiss the whole situation with "whatever" and assume you are always right.

You continually discount the good that Christianity has done through out it's history because you don't like it's stance on gay marriage. Everything is viewed through that lense. While I understand that, I would probably do the same thing in your position, it clouds your "reasoning" and hides "evidence" from you.

If Southern Baptist go and rebuild homes destroyed by Katrina, you say, "yeah but the slavery." If Catholics feed the poor and homeless, you say, "yeah but the Crusades." If conservative Christians work in Africa to help with the AIDS crisis, you say, "yeah but, gay marriage."

I'm sorry you feel you have to do that. But again as I hoped to demonstrate with my post. I believe that you are invaluable to God and that He loves you more than you could ever know. I love you, even if you don't think I do, through Christ. Maybe we as Christians don't do as good a job as we should in demonstrating that, but ultimately it comes down to one's response to God's love, not "yeah but."

[Louis]

My response becomes extreme as a result of the intense frustration I feel when dealing with xians. It's unfortunate, I agree, but not unreasonable under the circumstances. I don't claim that xians have never done any good, but I feel that organized xianity itself has done so much evil (and not just against gay people) that, on balance, it has had a toxic effect. Individual xians can be very good and do great things, but their religion has much to answer for.

And, I also reject the idea of a loving father-god who concerns himself with our personal welfare. I see no evidence for such a phenomena and have never felt it in my own life. If anything, the opposite. And, as a gay man I just cannot get past the basic hetero-centric and homophobic nature of xianism.

I have found a much more agreeable way with Buddhism (not that it's perfect either).