When I think back on it I chastise myself for my youthful arrogance. How could I have been so uncaring and disrespectful? A few miles from my school in Uganda there was a huge outcrop of rocks. I spent the afternoon of my 30th birthday up there enjoying the quiet breeze that always came after our very regular afternoon thunderstorm. A fairly large python lived up there and would be fed by locals who worshiped it. One afternoon I along with a few friends had the opportunity to capture it and take it to our school. During the night someone came and took it back to the rocks. I saw it there the following afternoons. I knew the people revered that animal. But for me it was just a large curiosity. It was an adventure to drag it home. It showed great disrespect for another man’s worship experience.
My students see me as an old man and on occasion ask me if I would do things differently if I had a chance. The answer is “Absolutely, yes.” I could write of many other things but will not turn this into a confessional. My point is that it is important to respect others who see things much differently than we do. How grand it is that God does not judge us by groups or by our associations but by our response to His wooing. He and He alone knows the perspective of each soul. He knows the vantage point with which we have seen life. Each of us sees life and issues through our biases. While we do not agree with others we need to respect them. I have come to believe that 95% of the people I meet are doing the very best they know how.
Written by Roger Bothwell on December 2, 2009.
Spring of Life Ministry, PO 124, St. Helena, CA 94574