One thing I enjoy doing when driving to and from church each day is listening to Christian music. A song that I have heard lately that has really caught my attention is called “Relate” by FOR KING AND COUNTRY. The chorus talks about how I don’t know what it’s like to be you, and you don’t know what it’s like to be me, but we’re all the same in different kinds of ways, so can you relate.
 
The song goes on to say that we all know what it’s like to be hurt and we all know what it’s like to feel pain. It then ends with saying that by the grace of God we’ll see each other’s hearts and then asks again if we can relate.
 
I think we all know this world and our society has unfortunately moved to a place where we are focused more on our differences than our similarities. The simple phrase of the song calling us the same in different kinds of ways puts the emphasis on our likeness rather than our disharmony. To be fair society in general may be right. We may have a novel worth of differences between ourselves, but why let that be what defines us? Why let something that is not the same be deemed the thing that should make us move away from each other and not relate to each other.
 
In a similar vein, I saw a video on Facebook from the beer company Heineken and it bring people together from different views and helps them to ‘relate’ before they are told their differences and then when they find out their differences, they are invited to share a beer or walk away. The commercial shows them sitting down and talking. They got to know each other first and somehow their differences weren’t as important as they said they were at first. They were able to relate and see how they were the same in different kinds of ways.
 
The Bible teaches us through Paul that we should live in harmony and at peace with one another (Romans 12:16-18). Paul also says that we should be of the same mind and same love and to look after the interests not of ourselves, but of others (Philippians 2:1-4). I don’t think Paul is telling us to be the same, but the same in different kinds of ways. We all know what it’s like to be hurt and feel pain, but we also know what it’s like to love and care for one another. We should use those gifts of empathy to relate to one another, to lift each other up, and to focus on what it is that holds us together; faith in Christ Jesus.
 
The world may tell us we are different and that our differences are irreconcilable, but Jesus tells us otherwise. Jesus tells us we are all children of the same heavenly God. Jesus tells us that our differences don’t matter because we are all loved the same. Christ lived and died and rose from the dead to bring us together as one creation. Join with Christ in saying that our oneness is more important than anything else in the world.
 
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. ~ Galatians 3:28
 
Here is the music video for the song “Relate”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7CnoV6P6zc
 
Here is the Heineken commercial World’s Apart
#OpenYourWorld
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etIqln7vT4w
 
Blessings,
 
Pastor Brian