Examining my own heart in light of a current trend <3
I have something on my heart and I just can’t shake it so I am sharing this musing NOT as a political statement but as a comment on what I see happening in the world that I hope and pray we are not imitating as followers of Christ.
Even as I consider sharing, I hesitate for two reasons.
One: I am not sure I have all the facts straight because I only hear bits and pieces of news reports and I know media bias exists in a huge way. So my take on this is just MY perception of public opinion and media coverage.
Two: I don’t want this to fuel any kind of political party ranting nor do I want to encourage further divisiveness amongst people. I am speaking here as a believer to what I presume to be an audience of mostly believers who, like me, are seeking to walk in truth and love every day.
But I see a trend in our society that I find alarming and a recent ruckus brought it to my attention in a clear way.
It seems a certain senator was followed into a restroom by someone who didn’t agree with her and wanted to continue ranting about that issue.
And the pundits and public sat back and determined if this was okay or not based on things like freedom of speech and the right to privacy and all kinds of comments and tweets.
As I mused on the sad state of our country that we are even considering this something to be debated as appropriate or inappropriate, it occurred to me that if we plugged in different characters and role played the scene, the take on it would have been entirely different.
In a like manner, I am reminded of a situation where an officer held a man down with his knee and the result that ended his life. Yet some waited to hear if the mistakes of his life justified this.
I would say again, plug in different characters to the cast of this story and see if your assessment of this would have changed at all.
It seems we have begun to assume the role of jurist to how we assess if someone has done wrong, been violated, or overstepped the lines of decency.
The media and social media have highjacked the simple bounds of what is right and wrong and encouraged us to sit in the juror’s box to determine guilt or innocence based on the full details of a person’s character, suspected motive and worthiness based on each juror’s standards of moral behavior as well as if they match up with our party lines.
I sense that we are being programmed to think that it is not the behavior that is wrong but only if the behavior is done by someone we do not share like thinking with.
We can easily excuse away wrong behavior in someone we support, while condemning the exact same behavior in someone we disagree with.
AND THIS GOES BOTH WAYS….it is not the isolated problem of the right, left, center or off the grid.
It is universal in our day and age.
No wonder there is so much confusion.
As a Christian, it is imperative that I do not begin to fall into this pattern of the world. Following a person into a bathroom to continue voicing my displeasure is rude. Holding someone down when they say they can’t breathe is wrong.
These are two extreme examples of what I see constantly happening in the news.
It doesn’t matter if it is a democrat, socialist, republican or someone who doesn’t even have a voter’s registration card.
Decency is decency.
Changing our standards for right and wrong based on if someone is like us or agrees with our beliefs is not biblical.
Our standard is not based on solidarity of our connection politically, racially or any other earthly means of being ‘unified’….our standards, as followers of Christ, are HIS standards.
I can’t do a thing about the media or what others say or do or share, but I can continually measure what I am doing and saying against the standards set by the God I serve and when I fall short or err because of my human tendency to lean to the flesh instead of the righteous…well…I confess and I repent and I pray for strength to grow in that area.
Blessings friends…as you work out YOUR walk of being saved with His help today <3