THE LIMITS OF OUR HUMANITY

321/365

Luke 17:7-8 Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’?

Our world is really full of a lot of the wrong kind of ‘self’. Everyone appears to have a headlight over themselves that appears to be screaming ‘me first, I don’t care about you’. The preamble Jesus tells is one that draws our attention to many facets but the one dimension that comes to light is the dimension of consideration.

It does seem to make sense to let the servant do what they are exactly hired to do, even when clearly at their peak of their function. We are often inconsiderate of the challenges of others and so have placed on their shoulders, without wiggle room, expectations that have to be met at all cost.

We are oblivious of their struggles, the challenges, and their battles because in our eyes, there are targets and deadlines to be met, nothing else matters. We are invited today to put on a coat of consideration because while  many will go to every extent to meet their responsibilities, there will be times when they may fall short. Not because they don’t want to, but simply because they cannot. Let’s appreciate the limits of their humanity.

#sly