I have said a lot about my recently found faith in God, and how it has changed my life over the past couple years. A lot has changed in me, but the one real thing has been the root of it all. I have found love. Real love, Agape as it is referred to as in the original Greek translations of the bible. Now that I have found it, my challenge has been what do I do with it? That seems like such an odd question, but its a huge one for me. You see, without going into detail right now, that is for another post, I had no idea what was love was suppose to be for most of my life. Now I am not saying I had a loveless life. My parents loved me very much, and I knew it. My family loves me, I had other role models in my life that showed love as well. Jennifer has always loved me, and my kids love me. But when I say I have found love, what I mean is I know actually feel the things that real love is supposed to make us feel, and its the type of love God intended us to have. Things like true forgiveness, and true happiness. Those things I can honestly say I never felt before.
So now that I have this love in me, I am back to that question. What do I do with it? How to I use it, how do I share it, how do I affect those in my life with it, and most of all how do I use it the way God wants me to use it? I do not have the specific answers yet, but I have figured out one thing. It is my responsibility to try and have that love come out as much as possible, in as many actions as I can, and towards as many people as I can get it to.
Now you might be reading this, and wondering what the heck does this have to do with my recent FB post, in which I stated my issues with some things happening in and around the country recently. In that post I state that America is not racist, and take issue with those who call my country that. I also debate a bit about a few issues in the country stemming from the racist issue. Well here let me explain a bit more.
You see I believe one thing whole heartily, every one of this countries issues, and any other countries issues stem from one thing. A lack of love. I would not define my country as a racist one, or as a bully as some countries do. I would not call it stupid, as some do due to our constant dropping in education levels world wide. There are many things my country is called that I take offense to, and do not believe that, even though we have instances in which we as a country, or a part of it act in such ways, those ways in which we act, being racist, bully, ignorant, and ETC. All those things are problems, and such, but I see one thing that all of them stem from, and that is what I would say is the real problem, and that is what I would call us. A country full of people in desperate need of love.
Racism is just a form of anger, and anger is just a secondary emotion that stems from hurt. And hurt, real hurt happens when love is absent. Think about the times when you where really hurting in life, and most likely you can attribute it to not feeling loved. And then think about how you reacted to that hurt. Some people get depressed, some use it as motivation, some try to just ignore it, and move on. And then some, I should say many get angry. And very often that anger turns to hatred, and their actions then reflect that hatred. Look at recent events. Whether it is just what happened, the killing of a teenager, who for sure did not deserve to be shot let alone die. Look at the reactions to it. Go back a bit farther, look at the mass killings taking place in public areas. Look at the rise in suicides. Its all rooted in anger and hatred, which many of them now we know started out with a person/people who where hurting.
Now look at our daily lives. How much of it do we fill with things that are loving? The news.media. I watched the 5 o clock news report for the 1st time in years a couple days ago. and the 1st of 3 stories was the situation in Ferguson Missouri of course, and then the next was a shooting in Fort Worth, and the 3rd a shooting in South Dallas. And what do we entertain ourselves with? Well Look at the top TV shows. Here is one listing the best shows from 2013. http://www.slantmagazine.com/features/article/the-25-best-tv-shows-of-2013/P5
Now I know that is just one websites opinion, but many of those shows where the top watched scripted shows. Breaking Bad, Hannibal, Justified, Game of Thrones and The Americans. All shows with extremely violent and angry characters. Not much love being shown there. and that was just the top 5, look at the whole list. Many of them based on very angry or even evil people, acting out their evil and angry feelings in ways that is the opposite of love. And that does not even cover the so called reality shows which also at times dominate the viewing public. Many of which also feed off of angry people committing acts that are the very opposite of loving each other.
I think you are starting to get my drift. This world, my country, and the people in them are in desperate need of feeling loved.
So now to the whole point of this post. My goal is to work towards a life filled with love. The name of this blog truly fits my life. I am angry no more. oh sure I get angry, just like people in this country act racist, sexist, ETC. But I am not an angry person anymore. And though I know I cannot change a country. I can change myself, and in turn affect the people around me. Who hopefully affect others around them. No I do not have some grand aspirations to change the world, just do what I should and see what happens.
So from this day forward. I want every action I make to be one out of love, and I am asking everyone reading this post to help me. How can you help. Well, let me tell you. You most likely are reading this post because I put it on FB and tagged you. Well if that's the case then you fall into one of 3 categories of people in my life. A Family member I love, A long time friend I love, or a new friend, that I feel a good connection with, and hopefully that can grow. And whichever of the 3 you fit in you all are somebody I have a level of respect for that I want to give you permission to hold me accountable, when I might not be acting out of love. I will at times fail, and allow that angry man to take over, and I want you to call me out on it. Now do not worry, I am not giving you permission to do this so I can do it in return. that was the old me. I am giving this permission cause I know I need help. We all do. And it is also a way for me to show a love I never could before.
I am doing this because to help show what think is another huge issue in this world. A lack of personal accountability, and lack of people willing to accept responsibility for their actions, but instead act out of hurtful anger and lash out and blame. I am doing this cause I think it is what God intended for me, and for all of us at some level.
I am doing this to be a man of love.
Thanks and God bless.
No comments:
Post a Comment