a burden worth the weight

“The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.  It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.  All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or the other of these destinations.  It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.  There are no ordinary people.  You have never talked to a mere mortal.  Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.  But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.  This does not mean we are to be perpetually solemn.  We must play.  But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.  And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner – no mere tolerance, or indulgence, which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment.  Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.  If he is your Christian neighbor, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat – the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.”    -C.S. Lewis,  The Weight of Glory

Why is it so tempting to construct groupings of “Us” and “Them” based on arbitrary criteria?

Conservative vs. Liberal vs. Moderate

Democrat vs. Libertarian vs. Republican

Catholic vs. Baptist vs. Pentecostal vs. Non-Denominational vs. …

Why does a “them” category evoke an emotional response?

Are these categories eternal?

Why is it so easy to form an argument as to why “we” are right and “they” are wrong?

How is it “they” became our enemies?

Why does picking a side take precedence over “loving God and loving our neighbors”?

Are not “they” unique and treasured image bearers of Almighty God?

Will we lift up Christ and let Him draw all men unto Him? (John 12:32)

Will we remember that it’s the kindness of God that leads us to repentance? (Rom. 2:4)

Or do we think "we" hold a monopoly on hearing God's voice? 

I want an eternal perspective.  I need God’s grace to bear, with humility, the burden of my neighbor’s glory.