Hello!
It is one of the strangest things to have a person you have known for years randomly say, “Wait, I didn’t know you were left-handed!” This happened three times in the last week, between cutting onions, serving food and comments on my “wrong” scissors. Lefties are not at all uncommon, but it still seems surprising to many folks when they come across a person holding their pen in the wrong hand. And there is always a pattern for the discovery: the exclaimer is always so surprised that you could possibly be a lefty! Their exclamation is then always followed by either a list of that person’s relatives who are also lefties, or a reminder that in the old days, people were not allowed to be left-handed! It’s always the same but still amusing!
I have also had countless people comment on the pointlessness of having left-handed scissors. Apparently, they look exactly the same and therefore there is no difference. Until they try to cut with them, that is. Some of the teens were confounded this weekend when they could not cut string with the innocent pair of left-handed scissors, until they switched hands. Maybe they should not have been taught these arcane arts though, as once they had mastered the art of holding scissors in a different hand, they quickly changed from cutting string to trying to cut the girls’ hair.
At varsity I had some stationery vengeance with a left-handed sharpener! (Yes, it is as absurd as it sounds. You just twist the pencil the other way.) Whenever someone asked for a sharpener in class, I’d give them mine and watch on with malicious joy as they became increasingly confused about why their pencil was not getting sharper.
At varsity I also had classmates expressing surprise about being a lefty, but there was another revelation that caused more of a stir than handedness. During a gap between lectures my mates were talking about our faith. We each shared about whether or not we believed in God and our various theologies. When I said that I was Anglican, one of my friends interrupted with, “Wait, I didn’t know you were religious!?!” Maybe she meant I seemed too laid back to be part of a denominational church. Maybe she meant how I talked was not what she associated with Christianity. Maybe she meant I did not act like a Christian. Whatever she meant, that was a wake-up call that the faith I claimed to have was not the faith I practiced.
We’ve all heard the adage by St. Francis Assisi: “Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words”. I, like many Christians, feel a small sigh of relief when I hear this phrase. It takes away some of the responsibility of doing the unimaginable and actually talking about religion! But I think the path of living out your faith might be as hard, if not harder.
To live as a Christian should be as distinguishable as a person doing everything with their left hand instead of their right. Lefties do things left handed because it comes naturally, but behaving like Christ takes time and effort. As I saw at varsity, sometimes we can get so out of practise that people are surprised when they hear what our beliefs are.
Exclamations about being a lefty are funny, but when people are surprised by our apparent faith, it’s concerning. We should not have to tell people we are Christian for them to know Who we follow. “They should know we are Christians by our love.” To be true disciples of Christ we need to live out His love, even when it least suits us. Just as it is the small everyday things that bring people’s attention to a lefty, it should be our love shown in small everyday things that brings people’s attention to our Christianity.
Much love in Christ
Heather P