People Are People

***We interrupt this Unscheduled Summer Planning Bloggy Bonanza to bring you my musings from the school carline!***


O.k., if you are a child of the 80s you'll remember this refrain from the Depeche Mode hit People are People.  Sing it with me!  

People are people so why should it be, you and I should get along so awfully? 

I found myself singing this to myself as I waited on carline to pick up my Kindergartner Tuesday afternoon.  You see, there's this mom, who without fail, parks her car on carline, gets out of said car to greet her child, spends time looking at and commenting on every last bit of artwork her child has created that day, slowly loads said child into said car, safely buckles her in and slowly pulls out of carline.  She does this in clear and flagrant disregard for the repeated requests of the school to not get out of the car on carline but instead allow the teachers to load your child and all of his/her precious artwork into the car and pull away quickly to keep the carline moving.  I see her almost everyday and I wonder at how someone could be so rude?!?  There is a long line of cars behind her filled with moms or dads who are just as eager to greet their children and gush over their artwork and get off the carline for Pete's sake!  

"Some people!"  I muttered angrily under my breath today as I watched her antics Tuesday.  And right away the Depeche Mode refrain flooded my mind.

People are people so why should it be, you and I should get along so awfully?

And it occurred to me, for the first time, that that is such a silly lyric.  Yes, people are people and that is precisely why we get along so awfully!  We are self-centered and prideful and fleshly.  I was feeling pretty self-righteous in that moment of Depeche Mode epiphany.  After all, I would never so flagrantly disregard school rules!  I would never be so rude as to hold up an entire carline of people!

And then God wiped the sanctimonious smile from my face.  "No," He agreed, "You would never do those things.  But you would, and sometimes do, greet your precious children with a barking 'get in and get buckled! we're holding up the carline!'  You would, and sometimes do, shush them as they enter, eager to show you a masterpiece, so you could finish an 'important phone call.'"

Yes, Lord, people are people.  Fallen and in need of Your grace.  Myself very much included!  Thank You for Your long-suffering with me, for Your forgiveness and Your mercy.  Help me, Lord, to be the hands and feet of grace to people- to freely give as I have been given!

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  Romans 3:23