Paradox of Eternity

To move from gang graffiti and condemned houses onto a pristine campus where deer droppings litter the grass is mind boggling, to see a business man in his Armani suit cross paths with man who picks up used cigarette butts and smokes them, astounding.

This life we live is astounding, a paradox in all facets. There are rich because there are poor. There are poor because there are rich. Each man's inefficiencies push another higher. We all are participants in this global dance and yet refuse to admit that the steps have been choreographed by the generations before us. We take our places and move as the music demands, straying only a little that we might not collide with another dancer. To insert syncopation requires courage, to dance to the beat of a different drummer, practically a death wish.

And yet, we seek to follow in the steps of Christ, so we do things that society says will condemn us. To look another man in the eyes is to admit that they are no more than pawns in our world, pieces that we can play in order to get ahead, so, we look deep into the pain in their eyes, and we smile. We sit next to those we have been told are to be rejected, and we talk to the distasteful.

We trade the paradox of this world for the paradox of eternity. We become the poor of this world, yet we know that we will be rich in the next. We syncopate because we hear a different song and we have vowed our lives to follow it.