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There is something we all have in common, something that can’t be argued away or hidden beneath the surface: we are all trying to survive. Even the things we do that are extra—the luxuries, the toys, the extravagance…all of that only happens when we have first figured out how to survive. If you can’t eat, you certainly won’t be worrying about which shiny new Fountain speedboat you are going to buy. Survival, that’s what we all hold in common. This is a harsh world in a universe speeding toward eternal heat death, and we are all just trying to make it out alive.

There has to be more to life than survival, right? We were made for far more than just waking up, eating enough to silence the screams in our stomachs, and going back to sleep while dreading the next day. We were made for more than just eking out a basic existence marked by extraordinary hardship and pain. We were made for more than this.

We were made to look at the vibrant beauty of the sky and marvel at the depth of its color. We were meant to run our hands through the crystal-clear streams of creation and be filled with awe at how we are nourished by this fragile earth, our island home. We were meant to embrace one another, to deeply gaze into someone else’s eyes, and find companionship, whether it be a friend or a lover. We were made for making love until sunrise as the most beautiful music played in our ears. We were meant for a life filled with richness, beauty, love, and laughter. We were meant to be whole.

Wholeness is elusive in our world. The world is crying, crying out to be loved, crying out to be delivered. It’s crying out because it can sense our decline as a species. It can sense us moving backwards in time; faster and faster we rush back to a time of deep suspicion and deeper suffering. Set aside your ideology. Set aside your religion. Set aside the tribalism of your preferred ACC basketball team or your favorite professional wrestler. Set aside EVERYTHING that might keep us apart, if only for this one moment in time. Set it all aside, and let’s together admit the truth: we’re going backwards, and it’s happening faster than we could ever imagine.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. We can still hold onto our ideologies, our different religions, even our different ACC basketball teams, but we make as our first and most ironclad priority: I will love my neighbor as myself. I didn’t come up with that line. I stole it from my boss, who had a lot of pretty amazing things to say. This one, though…this one can change the world, if we would truly try it on for size. There’s not much to it. It’s the simple idea that the person standing next to you deserves all the beauty, joy, celebration, and love that you would be willing to give to yourself.

It’s hard out here. It’s hard just being alive. Most of us are just scraping by, unable to see the beauty of the sun because we are face down in the shadows. But not all of us. And if you aren’t in the shadows, then you have the chance to be a light. You can help someone see that pain isn’t the defining characteristic of humanity. You can help someone know what it means to finally be alive, fully alive. Choose honor. Choose goodness. Choose mercy, love, and beauty. Choose anything other than selfishness, and I promise you, dear people, we might make it out of this alive.

From the bottom of my heart, I implore you: be excellent to each other, spending your lives in the pursuit of truth, justice, and a better tomorrow. I don’t know what the future will look like, so I can’t promise you what that better tomorrow will look like. But I can tell you that the only way we will ever reach that better tomorrow is by linking arms and walking towards that future together. Are you with me?

Chris Adams is the Rector at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Washington.