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agendas, alton sterling, Christian, Christianity, compassion, justice, love, mourning, philando castile, police shootings, political, politics, racial tensions, sorrow
“But if I have not love, I am nothing.” ~ 1 Corinthians 13:2
My mother-in-law gave me wise advice years ago. She told me that when it comes to people you admire and causes you support, if you agree with every single iota of a person’s opinions or an agenda’s position, then you’re not thinking for yourself.
You cannot change the world, play your part in it, or make the difference you were created to make if you swallow every gulp of what your favorite pastor, political party, or network is pouring in your glass. The opinions and reasoning of men are flawed and imperfect because we are flawed and imperfect. Only God and His word are infallible.
I’m not on the bandwagon that cries racism every time there’s a person of color killed by a white officer. Neither do I duck my head in the sand and say “No way this is unjust. They must have deserved it” just because somebody posts a FB photo or Twitter post about the victim that shows disgraceful behavior. I don’t share blog posts that essentially say “I was treated okay, so that other person’s experience must be bogus,” when a person who was alive and well yesterday is gone today and have people who loved them fresh in mourning.
To do so is to show the world how non-objective and hard-hearted you really are; you’ve got your Democrat or Republican, Liberal or Conservative playbook and you’ll die before you break ranks or call an audible. It’s not about being right. Where’s your sense of humanity when you can watch a person die on video and the only thing that crosses your mind is rhetoric, debate, and “what’s a good meme to silence all these outraged people?”
Where is your sadness? Your horror?
Especially if you call yourself Christian?
Even if–in your limited and sorely mistaken opinion–every single police shooting is justified and the victims are wicked, how can you take pleasure in or be so indifferent to death when God Himself takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, when he took a man like the Apostle Paul, who had a murderous rap sheet, and both loved and changed him?
These two men had value in God’s eyes. His Son died for them. People loved them. Meditate on that for a minute and get down off your politically charged social media high horse and let your heart beat blood for a spell.
“But if I have not love, I am nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:2
