What is spilling out of your cup today?
I’ve gratefully lived many years, and in all those years, there have been times I have not always responded well. Actually, some have been pretty ugly and given cause for serious reflection and permanent change. I’m sure this is true for us all, if we were honest with ourselves. However, at its worst, I never saw such a level of hatred, rejection, pride, fury, and terror, until now, spilled out of otherwise kind and trusting hearts in the past. It seems true freedom no longer means the ability to not say something that would hurt another human while expressing our own point of view.
I look at today’s world and tears come to my eyes. Unresolved wounds of the past fuel undeserved hate in the present. And yes, hatred, pride, and the like can be just pure evil. My hope is that, instead of unleashing all hell onto otherwise good friends, recent, inciting events can be put to better use. Maybe they can lead us to awareness of what hides within us who think we are pretty good people standing for righteousness. Maybe the election, the pandemic, and other life-changing events we’ve all experienced can help us realize that, as kind and good as we think we are, we all can find a scary, damaging level of buried resentment, hate, fear, and bitterness we didn’t know we were capable of.
Truth Is Not Always Pretty
Awareness is a gift even if its truth is ugly. The question is: are we going to self-justify and stuff it back down? Or instead, can we convince ourselves to seek help, learn to respectfully disagree…and make amends? Becoming a civilized society again calls for great humility, and humility, after all, is strength, not weakness. Will we use our strength to love or to continue to hate, to bring life or to kill?
In one light, I see these painful moments in our history as gifts. They exposed what we each need to replace inside ourselves. Beyond that now, it’s what we do with our unseemly, unreasonable reactions that also matters. A computer is a gift. We can use it to bash or to encourage and learn from each other. Which do you choose?
Love is the answer, and with it comes the ability to restrain our mouth so we do no one harm. Let’s help each other find that and mend.