Mind Walls

Walls as a blockade seem to be an integral part of our society. Almost from the beginning of man's pilgrimage here on earth, there have been walls which have bound and imprisoned mankind. These walls are designed supposedly to protect our society, to safeguard us from taboo and abnormal personality traits. But it should be considered that mankind down through the ages has deliberately and voluntarily erected walls to shut out segments of society.

Isaac Newton keenly observed that "we build too many walls and not enough bridges." Joseph Newton took it a bit further by asserting that "people are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges." We all know far too well how accurate these statements are, do we not?

Men have been engaged in not only the building of physical walls, but psychological walls. There are walls being built everyday due to the evil that seems to be running rampant in our land. These are walls of the mind, psychological walls; walls that we create to separate ourselves from one another.

Walls of the mind are more difficult to penetrate than walls of steel. We see walls in this generation between the races and age groups and sexes. We see the mind walls between parents and their children and spouses and religious institutions. These walls exist because various individuals or groups believe they have something which they must protect.

But there is this ancient voice speaking to us from the corridors of history. This old voice is speaking to us from one of the greatest of books to be found in Scripture. The Apostle Paul declares, "He is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2:14).

Too many of us are divided. We cannot get along. We are hostile toward each other and alienate ourselves from each other. We cannot co-exist. We have too many homes broken up because the inhabitants erected walls of separation. We have too many families disintegrating because of mind walls.

But you know what the joke is? Jesus has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. It no longer exists. We are fighting where there is no war.

Rev. Saundra L. Washington, D.D., is an ordained clergywoman, social worker, and Founder of AMEN Ministries. http://www.clergyservices4u.org. She is also the author of two coffee table books: Room Beneath the Snow: Poems that Preach and Negative Disturbances: Homilies that Teach. Her new book, Out of Deep Waters: My Grief Management Workbook, will be available soon.