“Respect everyone, and love the family of believers…”

I’ve daily been following the Tour de France (as I do annually.)  I love the Tour with its combination attributes of team, individual, country, strategy, sheer strength and perseverance.  I am not exaggerating when I say I have never seen as many crashes as I have watched this year.  And, not just individual crashes that happen, but nearly the entire peloton getting knocked down at once.  There are many speculations as to why so many crashes this year, and I was struck of a theory while listening to one of the riders after the early stages say (and I paraphrase), “There was a time on the Tour that we respected each other that we would not put other riders in harm’s way to benefit ourselves.  Those times are gone and we have become reckless with our disrespect of each other to get what we want.”  Wow!  Does that sound familiar in how we are operating and acting in so many segments of life today?  There is a line of respect for others that when we cross it, many can end up hurt.

In the Bible, we are taught to respect everyone and to go beyond that and express love for each other.  If we respect others, we will not do something that hurts them so that we can gain.  When we show that level of respect for other people with whom we work, we aren’t the political climbers that so many are.  We aren’t the ones who are always trying to take credit for someone else’s work.  We aren’t trying to grab the attention at the expense of someone else.  We aren’t the ones who create crashes just to get ahead of someone else.  It’s a good challenge for us to remember that we are to be a people of respect.

Reference:  1 Peter 2:17 (New Living Translation)