Hey, all---I don't know if you are a person like me (probably not, I suppose), but I have mixed feelings about events this week.
Don't get me wrong, I do think that Barack Obama and Joe Biden will do a decent job being in office. I really do think that somehow, some way people will be able to work together on things again and I am hopeful for our future.
I am a person that gets sad when people are rude to one another and who likes to see people being kind to one another. I guess I say this as an Evangelical Christian person who feels hurt by how Evangelical Christian people are shown as being ignorant of the world and extremely unkind to others who hold different beliefs from them. For me, being a Christian means that I should love others around me, including the people that are mean to me and who I disagree with, and that I should constantly strive to all around me with the same kindness Christ showed to those around Him. Maybe I am thought of as silly and naive, but I would rather look dumb, I guess, than to be someone else that I am not.
I may not be making a whole lot of sense to anyone, I am just writing out some thoughts I have had in the past few days. I was reminded recently of one of the administrators that used to speak once a week at chapel during college. He was doing a series from the Sermon on the Mount and would often tell us college students who worried about what we should be doing with our lives and what kind of jobs we would have later on and who we should be dating and all of that, "I don't know what major you should have or the person you should marry, but I do know that God's will for your life is to . . . (love one another, look at your own faults before you look at the faults of others, or care for those in need depending on the section from the Sermon on the Mount he had been preaching from that day).
I guess I think back on those days a lot when I see some controversial subject being talked about and I think, "Hmmm, God wants me to love my neighbor and my neighbor is everyone, right? I guess I need to be conscious of doing that whether I understand their life or not. God knows what He is doing and things will turn out well."
I think back on those days when Dan and I are wondering how money situations will get handled and I think, "Okay, God has things under control and I don't need to worry. Just keep going and doing the work that needs to get done and somehow things will be fine." Fine doesn't mean things won't be hard. Fine doesn't mean I get everything I want, but fine means that I will somehow have the things I need when I need them most.
Ummm . . . anyway, let's try and to be kind to one another and not be mean to someone who might have voted differently than you or I or whomever else. A little love and kindness to those who are hurting (and even to those who are not hurting) can go a long way to making people whole again.
1 comment:
Hello neighbor! :) Kindness is one of the few things left in this world that may actually come naturally to some people and I think that if we all took the time and the baby steps needed, we could all say hello to each other on the street and make eye contact, or donate canned foods to local pantries, or set aside our differences in opinions and work together. I think that's what God wants for all of us. To realize that we are not color, creed, but human and we crave the touch and the smile of a stranger (a kind one!!) every once in a while. We are social beings and we need to try to see the wrong in the world and fix it. I also think that it starts with the simple act of kindness.
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