My roomate in college came from a small Texas town of 5000 inhabitants. He was born there, got baptized there, and received all of his sacraments there from the same pastor. He graduated 2nd in his class of 40, all of whom he knew since Kindergarten. And he was the only person on his school golf "team".
He came to the University to study Actuarial Science because he was always good at math. He had 15 credit hours of Advanced Placement classes even before stepping foot on to the University ground...saving himself a whole semester worth of tuition. He had a 5-year plan, a 10-year plan, a 20-year plan, and a 30-year plan. I was sure he had a 40 and a 50-year plan too, but he hesitated to tell me for fear I might think him weird.
Everything in his plan was calculated for the lowest risk of failure and the highest probability of success. His daily schedule was planned to the minutes, including bathroom breaks and snack time. This is a kind of guy that would get upset if someone serves him steak instead of his usual tuna fish sandwich on Sunday. If I were to ask him to try my Vietnamese egg rolls, he would respectfully declined. He would still be happy for me that I could enjoy them, but he just couldn't accept them because they were not within his comfort zone.
It would be easy to classify my roommate as "inflexible" or "too rigid". But after reflecting on my own preferences, maybe someone out there is looking at me and think I'm "too rigid and inflexible".
On a quest of being One with All, I often come across the question of tolerance. What does it take to be considered as an "open-minded person"? How far must I stretch the limits of my tolerance for beliefs that are not consistent with my own? Should I attend a Christian church on Sunday, a Buddhist temple on Saturday, and a Muslim mosque on Friday before I can called myself "open-minded"?
As souls, I have no doubt that we can do many things our physical bodies can not. But even with as great as the capacity of a soul is, I don't think we can adopt the preferences of everyone in the world and make them our own. Not only would that be very hard to do, it would also be unnecessary. It would be like forcing a stomach acid-producing cell to do the job of an eye retinal cell, or that of a nerve cell. Although every cell in our body has the same set of DNA, each cell only expresses what is needed from that genetic blueprint for that particular body. Our relationship with God is not unlike the cell's relationship with the whole organism, or the study of foot reflexology and auricular acupuncture to the study of whole body acupuncture. Each is a microcosm reflecting the truth of its parent macrocosm, but each microcosm is inherently different from the next.
So whenever I come across a belief that challenges the limits of my tolerance, I remember the lesson I learned from my college roommate. Although the world is rich in wonderful diversities, I can only accept what is inside my comfort zone.
He came to the University to study Actuarial Science because he was always good at math. He had 15 credit hours of Advanced Placement classes even before stepping foot on to the University ground...saving himself a whole semester worth of tuition. He had a 5-year plan, a 10-year plan, a 20-year plan, and a 30-year plan. I was sure he had a 40 and a 50-year plan too, but he hesitated to tell me for fear I might think him weird.
Everything in his plan was calculated for the lowest risk of failure and the highest probability of success. His daily schedule was planned to the minutes, including bathroom breaks and snack time. This is a kind of guy that would get upset if someone serves him steak instead of his usual tuna fish sandwich on Sunday. If I were to ask him to try my Vietnamese egg rolls, he would respectfully declined. He would still be happy for me that I could enjoy them, but he just couldn't accept them because they were not within his comfort zone.
It would be easy to classify my roommate as "inflexible" or "too rigid". But after reflecting on my own preferences, maybe someone out there is looking at me and think I'm "too rigid and inflexible".
On a quest of being One with All, I often come across the question of tolerance. What does it take to be considered as an "open-minded person"? How far must I stretch the limits of my tolerance for beliefs that are not consistent with my own? Should I attend a Christian church on Sunday, a Buddhist temple on Saturday, and a Muslim mosque on Friday before I can called myself "open-minded"?
As souls, I have no doubt that we can do many things our physical bodies can not. But even with as great as the capacity of a soul is, I don't think we can adopt the preferences of everyone in the world and make them our own. Not only would that be very hard to do, it would also be unnecessary. It would be like forcing a stomach acid-producing cell to do the job of an eye retinal cell, or that of a nerve cell. Although every cell in our body has the same set of DNA, each cell only expresses what is needed from that genetic blueprint for that particular body. Our relationship with God is not unlike the cell's relationship with the whole organism, or the study of foot reflexology and auricular acupuncture to the study of whole body acupuncture. Each is a microcosm reflecting the truth of its parent macrocosm, but each microcosm is inherently different from the next.
So whenever I come across a belief that challenges the limits of my tolerance, I remember the lesson I learned from my college roommate. Although the world is rich in wonderful diversities, I can only accept what is inside my comfort zone.
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