I was just lying in bed awake because I couldn’t stop thinking about the concept of brotherhood. There is brotherhood by birth and there is brotherhood by experience. Soldiers who fight in wars together become brothers. Men who go through tough times together become brothers. Good friends think of each other as brothers. Martin Luther King Jr. preached brotherhood to a nation on the verge of tearing itself apart. Brotherhood is a profound and vitally important concept.
A brother is someone you can trust, relatively speaking, and sometimes they betray that trust. When times are hard it’s difficult to trust anyone. People talk when you’re not there, they seek their own in volatile situations and others are betrayed. Trust gets betrayed. Still, brotherhood endures through betrayal, through carelessness and greed, through failures of resolve, and people forgive one another. At times people talk too much. The tongue is a fire, and loose lips sink ships. Gossip and betrayal go hand in hand, but this is not that kind of rant, I must stay positive. As people endure hardships over the years, transgress and forgive—only if we forgive—brotherhood grows patiently stronger. Love is the base and foundation of all things. Nothing can supplant it.
Society has been working through issues over the past few years, almost like we are being reborn and evolving simultaneously. All of us are being forced to prepare for a better world where nobody will argue or fight anymore. We will contend with each other, but there will be no bitterness or hard feelings. We will finally be able to trust one another and enjoy an agape love throughout society which will make it possible to live together without hang ups, annoyances, or grudges. We’ll be friends, brothers, and sisters.
I had a friend when I was young, when I used to dream of flying, with whom I did everything. We were inseparable until the age of thirteen when my family moved and we went our separate ways. He was a brother, and though we haven’t spoken much since then, I still think of him as family. Children share a special kind of friendship, and sometimes adults do too, that prevails despite differences or problems, that simply endures, because to kids, friendship itself is the most important thing in the world. For adults friendship often gets complicated and crowded out by other matters. When love is prioritized, brotherhood can take root and grow to become stronger than just about everything else in life, and people can become like family.
Life is a gamble. One must take chances sometimes to win a reward. Trusting others with one’s time and friendship is the biggest gamble one can make. They will disappoint you and let you down. They won’t stay your friend for long. Thoughts like these sabotage trust so that friendship can’t take root and grow stronger, and where there is low risk, there is low reward.
From a historical perspective America has taken great strides toward brotherhood for all. World War II, the Civil Rights Movement, simply prevailing as a nation of immigrants has made the rest of the world admit that something approaching brotherhood is possible on a global scale. We can achieve unity despite our differences, we can be brothers and sisters, we can function more like a family, all of us. The United States, though we’ve had our share of problems, is a testament to family.
We’ve had to leap over many tragically detrimental hurdles in order to make it as far as we have. The racism in this country has been a ruthless enemy since long before day one, but the progress we’ve made, we’re making, will last forever. The red stripes on the American flag aren’t for the Colonies, they’re for the blood our citizens and soldiers have shed to make a better world. America has won a great victory that can’t be erased or taken away because it is God’s victory first. Those who hear the word of God and do it are part of a greater family of saints and angels. The better angels of our nature are becoming family for the next age when the truth of our existence will finally be revealed.
I have one brother by blood who has always looked out for me. He prays for me as I pray for the world. He is older than me and reminds me to be both tough and kind. I’ve failed on both counts but still I keep trying. Brothers remind us who we are and who we should strive to become. They look out for their families, and endure when times are difficult. Brothers challenge each other to be better. The light that illuminates us all comes from a Father and Son who have made us a family through the Spirit. Nothing can break the bonds of love that connect us forever and ever.
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