Lenten reading :A heart of stone

Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end. (Heb. 3:12-14)

In our world today, it is so very easy to harden one's heart, to denigrate our fellow man and, in doing so, disrespect the Divine which is in each and every one of us.  It is a simple matter to argue that they are not like us, that we live in different worlds and that our understanding of Truth is superior to another.

This is the way of a hardened and unbelieving heart, for in denying the truth another sees, we deny the Truth itself.  To argue that there is a 'them' ignores that we are all together, we are all one.  To do anything other than acknowledge the Divine in someone else denies the Divine in everything, including ourselves.  If Christians hold that God is omnipresent, then She lies within me as much as He resides within you.  To believe in the Divine is to uplift one another.  To be good is to see the good in all, both others and oneself.