U C US LUVN

By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.  John 13:35 NIV

I’m a compulsive T-shirt reader. Clever, funny, pithy, offensive or just plain dumb. If they’re illegible or cryptic, I’m likely to pursue one across a room to ask what it says, what it means. Had some good conversations started that way.

A couple of weeks ago a normal-looking, football player-sized black man came into SubWay and sauntered past my table. His shirt was in clear view, bold white letters on a dark background: WE CU H8N. I was slow to decipher that because that isn’t where my mind was at.

“We see you hating.”

What could I have said that would have made a difference to him? People interpret what they see and hear and read according to their own biases, their own preconceived ideas. It’s hard, if not impossible, to get past a firmly entrenched belief, no matter how mistaken it is. Yes, there are people who hate on the basis of differences, but far more who don’t.

WE CU H8N.

No, you don’t. if you saw anything “negative” in me, it was pity. Pity that you’re wasting your best years on Satan’s lie.

Avi, what do people see when they look at me? Do they see hate? Indifference? Or do they see the love of Your Spirit who lives in me? Make me like You, Avi. In Your holy name, Amen.