I think a lot of things have been happening lately. For me, it’s like the new semester brings in a new set of classes (duh), hang-out buddies, and commitments.

And I feel like I haven’t been really satisfied with what I’ve been committing myself to these past few weeks.

I was reading through the Exodus today and I came across chapter 23:4-5

If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him.

Okay yay God tells us to love our enemies even in the Old Testament. I was pretty proud of myself for noticing that verse and gave myself a mental pat on the back. But then I came across verse 9…

You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

Sojourner: a person who resides temporarily in a place; a wanderer (Wikipedia)

Any historian could tell you that sojourners or wanderers or nomads or whatever you want to call them weren’t exactly the most desirable people on the planet in ancient times. They took up space. They consumed resources. They were wild cards in terms of military threats. They were undesirable for any civilized, settled nation. But you know, wanderers have a bad rep today too. It’s just that they have different names:

Hobos. Gypsies. Squatters. Solicitors.

See, the point mentioning this is that you could substitute the word “sojourner” with any undesirable person. And here’s the punchline: “you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”

I used to hate inconsiderate people. Really. I did. I told one of my suitemates that some of the people I respect the least were people who used people and threw them away after their usefulness expired. Don’t get me wrong, I still don’t have any respect for those kinds of people. But now I realize that, you know what, I was like that at one point in my life not too long ago.

So for all those cocky kids, to all those awkward kids, to all those inconsiderate kids, to all those people who I for one reason or another “despise,” I’m sorry. I was and am wrong in shunning you, because I’m positive that I’ve been cocky, awkward, inconsiderate, and undesirable in general in the past. I was like that and in many ways still am even worse than the people I dislike.

But the grace and mercy that I’ve received demands a reckoning, and that reckoning is for me to “not oppress a sojourner.” 1 John 3:16-18

/endreflection