Blog

Have you experienced or felt recently an intense tension mixed with sense of fear, unusual hostility and defensiveness?

If you have, you have been discerning what people are feeling right now. 

WE ARE IN GLOBAL TRANSITION

Globally we are in the midst of enormous continuous transition on so many levels, social, technological, spiritual, political. Transition dismantles our current identity, sense of belonging, place in relationships and the order of things. 

We find ourselves in a space of wonder.. wonder of what will become of the former… former relationships, former values, former ways of doing things. Uncertainty surrounds who we are now and what will be.

This has a way of evoking emotion in us, often strong emotion – emotions that we typically love to avoid like grief, anger, sadness, uncertainty, anxiety, loneliness.

HOW WE ARE DEALING WIH TRANSITION

Research has revealed that one of the ways people are coping with transition and therefore the emotion that comes with it, is through “Common Enemy Intimacy”.

WHAT IS COMMON ENEMY INTIMACY?

Common Enemy Intimacy happens when we express to others how we hate something or someone and we agree on that together. We become agreed in who is an enemy. It is habitual. It is deliberate. It is an easy way to hotwire connection and it is a way people deal with the discomfort that transition creates.

Common Enemy Intimacy is connection based on hate. Who or what we all hate together. 

It is subtle and it is changing how we see and what we expect in relationships. 

It happens so easy. At school gates, around kitchen benches, in sporting clubs, waiting in line at the supermarket, at Christmas parties. Conversation kicks off with who or what we hate today.

It can be humorous like a dig at a particular football club, a little more serious as someone lets fly with an insult or more sinister like ethnic or political slander and violence.

Common enemy intimacy. It is not real connection. It is not sustainable connection. It creates an atmosphere that is intense, full of tension, hostily and fear.

So as we run into one of the busiest seasons of the year with transition flinging itself all over it, don’t buy into the culture of common enemy intimacy. We are called to love, love God, love one another. We are called to a higher standard, to model a different vision for humanity. We are called to be safe with our mouths and release with them atmospheres that host heaven.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

1. If you discern tension, fear, hate, bind it in Jesus name and welcome heaven to open wider releasing God’s love and peace over your family, your home, the area and nation you live in.

2. Ask God to fill you with His love and teach you how to love

3. Connect from empathy. Empathy doesn’t mean agreeing. It is the choice to hear how another perceives something and acknowledges their emotion.  Remember that family member, that neighbor, that leader is not your enemy. 

“For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12