I’ve been thinking recently about various aspects of the “us versus them” mentality. Sometimes it may represent a competitive spirit, in perhaps a fun kind of way—my team versus yours, my town versus yours, my state versus yours, my country versus yours. We especially think of it in a fun spirit in relation to sports. And people seem to enjoy having a competitive spirit. However, sometimes the “us versus them” mentality is used to categorize people in ways that lead to divisiveness, hate, and even cruel and harmful acts.

It has been postulated that making distinctions among people in ancient times had been part of survival instincts, perhaps especially among warring groups of people or nations. And yet if we take a big picture view, a much longer range view, God only makes two eternal distinctions among people—those who are saved and those who are not. So, in the big scheme of things, taking a more global and long-range view, how significant really are the earthly distinctions that we make among people?

One of the lines quoted at the end of each Red Green show is, “Keep your stick on the ice—we’re all in this together.” The statement indicates playing nice and cohesiveness among people. Just think if we focused more on what unites us rather than our differences, what a greater world it’d be.

Isn’t it almost tragic that people practically snicker when they say the goal of world peace. Unfortunate, really. But the only person’s actions that we truly can control is our own. I’m reminded of the Starfish Story, of the little boy rescuing starfish on a beach, putting them one by one back into the ocean, and when asked how his actions were making any real difference, his response, “I made a difference for that one.” And so can we. Each one of us can choose to make a positive impact on others—it doesn’t have to be an impact on many people to matter.

Let’s be more aware of our “us versus them” mentality and beware that it’s only in a fun and not cruel spirit in how we treat other people and groups of people. We’re all in this together.

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