Translating a World on the Edge

First, we need to get it through our heads that hatred degrades us as human beings, that hatred is not strength but cowardice, that its cause is the fear of not having things the way we want them?

I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.
― Booker T. Washington

Hatred is the coward’s revenge for being intimidated.
― George Bernard Shaw

In time we hate that which we often fear.
― William Shakespeare

Why can’t we get it through our heads that we ought to treat others with dignity?

Why can’t we get it through our heads who we really are?

Each one of us is a child of God, who created us for a purpose, and we are meant to be Christ-like. We are not here to manipulate others, or puff ourselves up, or to grab all we can before someone else does.

We are here for such a short time, but in that time we can make a real difference by how we live our lives. That difference can be a benefit or a hindrance to our fellow human beings. Why would we choose to be a hindrance? Yet many of us do.

When we interact with another person, and actually see him or her as they are–made in the image and likeness of God, the same God who created us–how can we cheat them? How can we manipulate them? How can we physically abuse them, or even kill them? For heaven sake–and I mean that literally–our purpose is to love them!

Secondly, loving is never easy. Loving someone presents many hurdles. One of the biggest is that even if we love a person, we don’t always love what they do. This is going to be true with parents and children, with spouses, with friends and co-workers, and with political opponents. There will be times when we know they’re going in a wrong direction. There will be times when we recognize that they are actually sinning, or proposing sin–a word that our society often choses to overlook. Are we to simply ignore this?

It would be foolish for us to ignore or tolerate sin, especially in someone we truly love and care for, because doing so puts them in danger. Sincere loving requires action, and that action is not to bury our heads in the sand. Would we allow our toddler to continue peddling down a busy highway on a tricycle, or would we run out to snatch them back before they are literally killed? Would we watch our ten year old put a loaded gun in his or her pocket, and then smile as they go out of the door? Would we allow our teenager to pump himself or herself full of drugs just because he or she thinks it’s fun? Would we allow our spouse to jump into bed with a co-worker without a word from us?

Confronting sin in those we love (and in ourselves) is an action that requires courage, a compassionate courage that at the very least cautions  our loved ones. If we do not care enough to attempt to unravel risky behavior in those we love, then we do not truthfully love them at all.

We must have the courage. We cannot be afraid to open our mouths. We are called to love. We are created to love. If we are children of God ourselves–and we are–then we must see that others are our brothers and sisters, and reach out to them in loving ways, without pomposity, self-righteousness, or manipulation. We must see Christ in others, and in turn we act as Christ would act.

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.–Matthew 9: 9-13

Each of us is a sinner. Can’t we try not to be?