Compassion is something that is lacking in so many areas of our lives. What is compassion? Webster defines it as this: noun: a feeling of wanting to help someone who is sick, hungry, in trouble, etc. : a sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it. So I ask you, how do you define it? What does compassion look like to you? Is it kicking someone when they are down? Is it playing off of someones feelings and emotions? Is it taking advantage of a bad situation? I'm sure most all of us would answer "no" to these questions, unfortunately our society as a whole screams an entirely different answer. I'm am terribly saddened by situations that are taking place right now in Ferguson, and my heart breaks for all of those involved. What was already a terrible situation is being made worse by the actions of a few. It has now become what seems like a race war and that just adds fuel to the fire and knocks us back hundreds of years. We have come so far and grown so much with racial barriers. To be thrown back to a time of hatred based on ones skin color is certainly a step in the wrong direction. When are we all going to realize that we are all God's children? He made us different on purpose not to be inferior to one another, but to learn and grow from each other. If you take a look at Genesis 1:26 it says: Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." Nowhere in that scripture does it say anything about any one particular race ruling over these things ... it says mankind in our image. We are all created in God's image just the same and our skin color does not determine who is less valuable in the eyes of the Lord. We are all His children and we are all loved just the same. Racism and hate come from the devil himself because he knows if he can keep us fighting one another then we are not following the most important commandment that God gave us:
Galatians 5:14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself". What I am seeing right now is far from love, and I'm certainly not seeing any compassion.
I am just as upset as the next person about the incidents that have taken place. I'm saddened by the events that led up to it, and heartbroken for the loss of life as a result. My heart truly hurts for the family of this teenage boy, as does it hurt for the family of the officer involved. None of us will ever know the true story because sadly one party is no longer here to tell his side. Now following these devastating events more tragedy is taking place with hate groups coming together to protest. These people are coming together in angry mobs because they are all going off of speculations and witness statements being released by the media. We are all old enough to know that the media is notorious for reporting things half way at times. They are all in such a hurry to break a story, that shortcuts are often taken and truths get lost. Then you see speculations about what happened. All it takes is just one person to light a fire of fury under just a few people and it spreads like wildfire. Out of all of these people lashing out in anger and hate not one of them was present during the altercation. You have more innocent lives being effected by the actions of a few that are lashing out and calling for riots. People are hating one another again simply for the color of their skin. I'm just gonna be real for a minute, first off I don't have a racist bone in my body. I don't see color and I certainly don't treat people different based on their skin color. Why? because as I have stated before, we are all God's children. You see last year I was put in the hospital and had to have a blood transfusion. As the nurses were getting me prepped they brought in the two pints of blood I needed; you can rest assured that I did not question the race of the donor. I was simply grateful for the generosity of those that gave in order to save my life. I didn't care what race they were, because guess what ... we are all the same on the inside, we were all created equal in the eyes of the Lord. So tell me this, with all the hate going on in the world right now, if you were in that same situation and needed blood would you question the race of the donor? Most likely not, because you would be just as grateful as I was to the faceless donor that was saving your life. So why hate each other in the flesh? Truth be told if some of these people now feuding with one another had crossed paths at any other time in life then they might have possibly been friends. Why does the careless actions of a few people dictate how we now see ourselves as a human race?
We are all very familiar with the old saying "love is blind", and it's true, love really is blind. When you add love and compassion to the mix you begin to see people lifting each other up, not tearing each other down. No, I am not completely ignorant to the fact that we've all had to overcome some history. I am very well aware of the days of slavery and when women had no rights. I am also very aware of just how far we've come from those days. You see we all want to hate each other for things that none of us even had to endure. I hated to learn about things that people had to go through all those years ago. In my own flesh and heart I was angry at the people that did such awful things. Even now I watch movies and just get disgusted at how things once were. I just look at the television with tears in my eyes, and hurt in my heart, and wonder how someone could be so awful. Can't they see, we are all human beings, we are not animals for crying out loud. Yet, the ignorance went on for far too many years, and even today it is rearing its ugly head. I am saddened by things that we learn about in our history books. It makes me question so many things, even in current events I just shake my head and say why? Why God is there so much evil in the world? Why God is there so much hate? You start to hear statements that start off with: Well if there is a God? Or, Why does your God allow such things to happen? We are all so quick to question God, but it isn't God doing these things. It's the evil in this world, the devil that infiltrates our homes and hearts and leaves nothing but a path of destruction behind. We sit back and think of how terrible our current events are with school shootings, bombings and riots to name a few. We think about how bad that is and why on earth would a loving God ever allow innocent children to die. We begin to lose hope in mankind and start to even question our faith. My Papa used to say all the time "What has been, shall be again", and he was right. If you look back over the course of time you will see how history tends to repeat itself over and over. Every time in the face of adversity we seem to fall apart at the seams and start tearing each other apart. Pointing fingers and laying blame instead of standing tall together to overcome the obstacle that was placed before us. Each and every time we fall right into the devils trap.
John 8:7 says: When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." In this scripture Jesus is referring to a woman who committed adultery. In those times you could be stoned to death for committing such an act. You can see that Jesus has compassion for her so he challenges her accusers. Although, He knew what sins she committed He still loved her and forgave her of her sin. However, He also knew that no man among them was sinless. Just like today, not one of us has a completely sin free life. Yet we all stand on our pedestals so quick to throw out judgement and anger, ready to attack anyone that we feel wronged us somehow. This isn't the way of the Lord and it sure isn't loving our neighbors as ourselves. So many people standing ready to stone a man for a sin that was committed. Is it wrong for us to feel anger? Absolutely not, it is however wrong to sin in your anger. Both sides of this tragedy is hurting and no one wants to believe that the person they love is capable of doing such evil things. As I said earlier, no one really knows the truth or the intentions behind the events that took place in the middle of the street by either party. What we have now is a disastrous mess left behind with the devil dancing in the streets rejoicing at his victory. We have hate and division among us and we all know that nothing good will come of that. Ephesians 4:25-32 says: Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor for we are all members of one body. "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as Christ God forgave you.
I realize there are things that happen in life that are so gut wrenching and hurtful, and we just want to retaliate by whatever means necessary. I just urge you my brothers and sisters to think before you act. Think about the ripple effects of your actions, think about all the wrongs you are responsible for, think about the people you have hurt, think about the times you've had to ask for forgiveness, but most of all think about how you felt when you were shown forgiveness, love and compassion. Will it ever take away the memory or the pain, probably not, but it certainly won't hurt so bad. At the very least you can find peace when you show God's love and mercy to others. I realize today's post didn't seem very inspirational, but there are times that we just have to be real. We have to stop and take in all the mess that is going on around us and try to find some middle ground. While my heart hurts I just don't see how fighting will help. So I choose to pray and love each and every one of you the way God loves me. None of us are without sin and none of us have any right to throw stones, so let's first start with ourselves and our own actions before trying to correct others. We are so quick to punish those who sin against us; yet we forget that the One without sin took the ultimate punishment for ALL OF OUR SINS so that we didn't have to. He lived a life free of sin, but took the beating and death sentence that we all deserved .... Now that is what I call LOVE.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is LOVE.
1 Corinthians 13:13
No comments:
Post a Comment