If someone would have asked me what the word meant a couple months ago...I'm not sure I could have come up with a concrete definition. But now the word radiates from my soul. Solidarity. According to one online definition it means "the feeling of unity based on common goals, interests, and sympathies. It is a term which is promoted by many social movements to help create social relationships based on justice and equality." Equality...there's a concept we often claim to believe but I question if we ever truly pursue.
In the baby hospital in Romania as I played with and fed 3 year old Zana Rostas...I could not help but compare her surroundings...a dirty room filled other with cribs and "forgotten" children...with the surroundings of my beloved...arguably spoiled niece...my heart and soul...Gracie Lynn. Why...I asked...how...could I possibly make sense of their vast differences of surroundings. Why was one born into privilege while another into rags?
We weren't allowed to take our cameras into the baby hospital...and after I met little Zana, I was devastated that I couldn't get a picture...but 2 years later...I realize...that little girl's face is forever etched in my soul.
In the end...when I reflect back on equality...it begs the question...does Gracie deserve a better life? Make no mistake...the little girl's heart absolutely amazes me every day and I would never pray for anything less than the very best for her. But...does she actually deserve a better life than Zana?
I serve every day in a community that it is far easier to pass judgment than to ever truly reach understanding. Because being born into a life of privilege...I really have no clue what it is like to live in a life of rags. I serve in a community that has been pushed to the outskirts of town...and fenced in...why...to keep them in? ...because nobody is standing at the gate...to be kept out.
There are no easy answers...and I'm just touching on the depths of solidarity. So I go to the Word to a scripture that reminds me why I fell in love with the amazing works and the man himself...Jesus Christ...
Commit yourselves to the same practical reasoning that you see and have in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was fully God,
did not use his equality with God for his own advantage,
but gave up everything,
becoming a slave in every way,
having been born just like any other human.
And when he had become like one of us,
he placed himself in solidarity with the humiliated,
following the way of obedience to the point of death
- even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:5-8
Christ defined solidarity by example...equal to God...yet made himself equal to the humiliated.
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