Is it just me or does the entire world seem to be on a downward spiral of increasing anger. It's something I've noticed recently.
A couple weeks ago I was at Target in Greenwood and I noticed in the check-out lane next to us a woman was irate because, from what I could gather, her check had either been rejected or it required an I.D. check or something. She threatened and fumed to the clerk working the register that she would never come back to Target again. I was thinking to myself, "Do you really think it's this poor girls fault that the machine rejected your check? Do you think threatening her will accomplish anything, as if she has some direct link to the CEO of Target, or the bank that rejected the check?"
I've noticed an inordinate number of people at Walmart recently just talking hatefully to their kids. Parents are name-calling, and spitting venomous words at 2 year olds who won't stop crying. Now, being the parent of such a child I understand the frustration level, and I am guilty more than I care to think about of the same type of parenting (or lack of), but there seems to be no more happy people anymore. Everyone seems to be out to fight someone else, verbally or physically.
I read an article today on CNN.com that sparked this article. Read the article here and take note of the final lines spoken by the director of the hospital.Panayotis Spatharakis, director of the Heraklion Hospital, told the Daily Mirror: "We asked him why he did it and he told us he was very drunk and could not exactly remember what happened.
"I feel that once he recovers and understands what he has done he should commit suicide."
The Daily Mirror reported that Hogan's plight after the plunge brought little sympathy from angry locals who surrounded his stretcher to scream abuse.
Someone explain to me what good it's going to do for him to kill himself. So we would rather put the family through more grief just so we can feel vindicated by the injustice done to these children and their mother. Is this really the best way to live? Is this all there is on earth anymore? Are we destined to live lives of anger and frustration and vindictiveness?
I believe in a better way.
It isn't an easy way. It takes effort. I struggle to make it a reality in my life. I get angry to often. I live in a sometimes constant state of anger and bitterness. I don't like it. I'm tired of it. May we live a life of love, where hurts are healed; a life of grace, where the best in humanity is sought out; a life of hope, that somewhere buried underneath our flesh is a soul aching to awaken from slumber and step into the light of the Kingdom.
shalom, matt
Everyone is Kung-Fu Fighting
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5 comments:
Ironically, there was a guy getting pretty irritated with the slow line at lunch here today. I've been the "cashier" so to speak. It's pretty stupid when people get irritated like that. I agree.
i think a lot of it has to do with the self serving culture that we live in... you know, the whole have it your way... when people don't get what they want when they want the act like bratty children... think about it... it's true...
you are all right on all accounts. particularly the parts about "having it our way" (which I think lies at the root of the problem more than anything else, as do most of our cultural problems...and church problems), and the part about losing respect for human life. this is why we can kill off millions of babies, euthanize the old and crippled, kill of the criminal, etc. some lives are more valuable than others in our cultural view. the problem is that in doing that we kill off the God-image in each one of them. It's almost like, in a way, part of God gets killed off, too.
Some lives are more valuable. Everyone else > emo kids for sure.
Weren't some lives more valuable back in the day, like OT times? God was cool with thousands (millions?) of people being killed. Did part of him get killed off then, too?
"why won't he just fix it?"
does anyone get the sneaking suspicion that God looks at us and asks us the same question? "why don't YOU fix it?"
"You will be MY witnesses..."
it isn't easy, and there aren't easy answers. maybe it all starts right in our own communities, the cultures that we inhabit and interact in. maybe if we showed more love, grace and compassion to our immediate circles of influence (family, friends, etc.) it would slowly change.
to be sure, God is on the move. many places around the world are being transformed. that kind of thing doesn't make the evening news too often.
you're right, there aren't enough people doing it Jesus' way. maybe part of our task is to disciple people and bring them along with us.
just some thoughts.
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