Widen your Horizon ...

Wednesday, August 31, 2011. A colleage of mine recently failed with some application. He wanted to get a particular job, with more responsibility. But he did not make it finally, even though he had a lot of support initially. But someone else applied who had better cards and the panel made a clear choice. Now, the wounds of this process are deep and it hurts!

We live in our small environment …

We all live in a small environment. We all have our personal horizon, which is usually determined by the people around us. We get our feedback from colleagues and our line manager, or from a particular set of teachers. We give feedback to the people around us, directly or indirectly. This has a huge influence on how we feel and think about ourselves.

The smallness of the world we live in is not depending on geography. I have seen rather small scientific groups, with members distributed around the world. Still, they were looking at their particular theme, and were not looking much beyond their own preferences and own questions.

It might even be that we are quite successful by this strategy: to focus on one particular question and build a community with those who have the same question. It is important for building a community to know some people well and work with them over time. But it also creates an environment where our feedback comes from a quite limited group.

Jesus and his Community …

Jesus invites us to his community. It is an international community, in every nation there are Christians, people believing in him. It is a huge community, with thousands and even millions of people in it. But it is also a small community, our focus is Jesus and in his presence there is a sense of familiarity.

Of course, also Christian communities can be narrow minded. It has happened again and again that some groups took the rules they found and lost the open heart of Jesus over time. They became narrow minded, focussing on some particular behaviour patterns, but not on the love, truth and forgiveness which Jesus brings.

But usually things are different. When you live with Jesus and come into some country, some town, some environment, then you find Christians and friends. There is a familiarity far beyond all human effects. I have come to Japan and found fellow believers, the same happened with people from Malaysia, from China, within the United States, the UK and in France. It is wonderful, if you realize that though there are huge cultural differences, in Jesus we are quite close and understand each other … such experiences widen our inner horizon strongly! ... more texts