Last night, I saw something disturbing on the news. Well, in fact, every day the news is disturbing. But last night this newscast was highly upsetting to me. An American right wing preacher was preaching hate towards the democrats and of course anyone who was not of their belief. A preacher, preaching hate. I keep repeating that sentence over and over again in my head.
The enemy within.
I tell myself, don’t watch these programs, but I think it is important that we keep informed on what and why things seem to be so bad around the world. I realise also, having lived with an historian for almost thirty years, that there is nothing new under the sun, history just keeps repeating itself, over and over again. We, as human beings, don’t ever seem to learn. People on the whole are not nice.
I felt like shouting out to the world, this preacher does not represent me as a Christian. This is not what Christians are, and I am almost ashamed (I say almost) to tell people that I am Christian due to the misinformation out there. Jesus came to preach love, to treat all people as you would have yourself treated. That is a hard one. I have this new grief for people in my soul these days, and it is haunting me. It does not leave, it is there all the time.
We are so wrapped up in our own little tiny lives, struggling to stay afloat, overwhelmed by all the things commercials tell you that you need, our big houses, our gadgets; we are judged by what we have, not who we are. But in the end, we die, and none of what we have amassed matters in the afterlife for those who believe in it. And for those who don’t, it still does not matter. You can’t take your riches with you when you die.
What really matters, to my mind, is how you live your life. You only have one chance at this, just one. What makes you happy or feel better about yourself? How do you combat the doom and gloom and the hate that is spreading out into the world? I am powerless to stop it, there is nothing I can do, so perhaps I should just ignore it all, live in my tiny bubble, and tell myself all is good and I am a good person, so it does not affect me, those are the world’s problems. I have enough of my own problems to deal with.
I don’t have answers, but yet I (we) do. It starts right here in our own community and with those around us. We can make this a richer, more caring community daily. We have amazing people in our community. I see it daily because of the work I do. We need to work on this. We need to put aside our egos when we see roadblocks; we need to figure out how to work around them, and solve the problem, not walk away in anger. We need to take the time to think things through. Our egos are the main problem. It is good to have a healthy ego, but not when you think you have all the answers, and are blind to any others’ ideas. Just because I disagree with you does not mean that we can’t have a healthy discussion without getting angry or upset. We can and will agree to disagree. But please, never close the door just because I disagree with you. I am not your enemy because of this. But sadly, this is not what I am seeing out there these days. If you are not with me, then you are my enemy.
Let’s not be that person. Try not to close your heart