Sacred Cows and Misplaced Passion

I found an adorable image online while looking for a picture to illustrate my point because a picture is worth a thousand words and all of that.  The image presents an adorable girl child, sporting a lightweight dress, cowboy boots, and a multi-colored hat one might wear on the beach. Only she’s standing in a wide-open field, before a huge bison with intimidating horns, and she’s holding an itty-bitty polka dotted umbrella over the beasts’ head. Isn’t she precious, I thought to myself, trying to protect that big old animal. That must be one special cow. Possibly even sacred, at least to this little miss.

Merriam-Webster defines a sacred cow as someone or something that has been accepted or respected for a long time and one that people are afraid or unwilling to criticize or question. Sacred cows. We all have them. Herds of ’em.

Granted, our chocolate/vanilla divides are old news. It’s technology allowing us to share our sacred cows with the world via a few keystrokes. And why not when we can motivate “our” side and inflame “theirs” faster than you can say, “Oh, no. My phone’s dying!”

Is there an answer for the increasing polarization? Yes. It’s the body of Christ. These comments aren’t directed to our nation’s extreme factions but to the well-intentioned Christians in every party. And yes, Virginia, there are Christian Democrats, Christian Republicans, and Christian Independents. A man named John Oxenham once penned a hymn with these words:

Join hands then, brothers of the faith, whate’er your race may be;
who serves my Father as a son is surely kin to me.
In Christ now meet both East and West, in Him meet South and North;
all Christly souls are one in Him throughout the whole wide earth.

Let’s lay our sacred cows on God’s altar and ask Him to help us evaluate them beneath the true Light that lights the whole world. May our goal be to live indifferent to flesh and blood men pulling our strings and passionate about what moves God’s heart.

Hugs,
Shellie