Combating Ugliness With Love

Turned out to be a longer sabbatical than I thought it would be but a much-needed one. Things are still rough as my spine is not fixed yet, I am being sent to a vascular doctor for my feet and lower legs and just had endoscopy which showed up one large ulcer and three smaller (not small…just smaller) ulcers in my stomach. I go back in six weeks for a repeat to see if the meds are helping.

I have wanted to write on this topic for a while. It seems the world wants to keep dividing instead of multiplying or uniting like we should. We pass around more labels than ever before and labels belong on soup cans. And I look at the destruction that has been done to my country over the past months and think with such sadness of how we all came together after 9/11 to join forces: No division and no fighting just bringing unity. I pray it does not take that again for us to wake up.

So, what has laid on my mind and heart is this. Every time we pass on a picture of ugliness, or racism, of killing, of extreme negativity we are helping keep it alive. Did you ever think about that. We think we are helping but all we are doing is reminding people of things that keep people divided. There is just so much craziness that if I did not have the complete faith in God, my Father, in Christ, my savior, I might succumb to the fear so many have. I just know that God takes care of his own. And I also know that when people are in a state of fear or anger, they do not think rationally. I truly believe that we need to have better investigation of these crimes and I believe the media needs to quit feeding info to keep people stirred up.

I have never constantly pushed my health issues in the front for everyone to see. Why?  Because I don’t want pity, I don’t want attention, I just want to serve the Lord and if it means doing it hurting then so be it. I believe Satan keeps throwing these things at me so I will stop working for the Lord but I will not stop. And I know when I can not go a step further, God is carrying me.

So, lets talk about unity. We can not have unity if all we do is use labels. Labels divide and make distinctions between us.  When we label others or ourselves, we are drawing a line saying they are different from me. How can you unify if we are always putting labels on everything. I remember watching a Black man teaching his daughter who started school for the first time and he had her repeating things like….I am good, I am not bad, no one is better them me, I am kind, I am beautiful. I thought it was beautiful because he was trying to prepare her for the ugliness that can occur when we send our kids off to school.  And where do these kids who yell out obscenities and name calling learn how to do this? Someone has TAUGHT them whether it be  the parents, the grandparents, the siblings…someone close to the child has taught them to hate and name call.

This is my take on these riots. When they destroy property and hurt people, they cease being a rioter and become criminals. Some Blacks were out there trying to get people to stop fighting and to talk but they would not. They even tried to set a journalist on fire and the journalists said it was too dangerous to stay and cover the story now. When has it ever been that bad in our country before besides Ferguson and Baltimore and this case.  How is this helping the situation? Or is the hate and name calling increasing the violence?  I think adults should be able to discuss and I do not think any person, cop or not, in their right mind would be showing up with the intent to kill, not with the way the hate climate is right now. There will always be ugliness in the world, on the internet and we have to make a choice to NOT fall into their games to get us to react. I recently had a “self-proclaimed Christian” make disparaging and insulting remarks about me and because I have known this person for years and years and know what they are truly like, I just had to smile and go on my way. I could have let myself get drawn into the drama that they like to stir but I do not like games and I definitely do not like the drama. Life is full of choices and I don’t need flowery religious pictures and quotes to get my point across. Life is full of choices including being happy and we have to choose just like we have to choose to not get caught up in the hatred, racism, and games people like to play.