People can be cruel. Whether they are Christians, Muslims, Jews, Democrats, Republicans, or whatever other category we want to choose, people can be cruel. People can be good. Whether they are Christians, Muslims, Jews, Democrats, Republicans, or whatever other category we want to choose, people can be good. It’s a choice we all get to make. We cannot choose it for others. We can only choose it for ourselves and we can choose how we respond and treat other people.
Recently, on one of my walks, I discovered that how I treat people demonstrates whether I am a person who destroys or conquers. If I stomp around and destroy others, I am not conquering anything. I’m just destroying. I’ve done that. It’s difficult to look back and see the destruction that lies in the path behind me. I try to be a conqueror so I can look back and see the growth of others that I have influenced in my path.
The destroyers are loud. They speak and people listen. When the entity is gone and is just a memory, we look back and recognize that it was our complacency of listening to the destroyers that allowed the destruction and failure. We do not have to argue with destroyers because they will not listen. We need to speak truth and give everyone words of wisdom that causes them to listen.
Jesus is perfect at getting the attention of those who did not agree with him to listen. He did not argue with the Pharisees and religious leaders. He silenced them. They tried to destroy him by killing him, but he conquered by resurrecting from the dead. Jesus knew his ultimate plan on earth. Maybe we need to design an ultimate plan and walk in that direction and stop becoming distracted.
Working at home sounds easy, but the difficulty is the many distractions that I thought I didn’t have. I have been better at keeping the television off, but that’s not the only distraction. We can find so many distractions in order not to deep moving forward in our lives. It’s in those distractions that we become destroyers because we focus on ourselves rather than on others, and we destroy so that no one will be able to thrive.
Selfishness is what destroys. It carries us beyond our roots. We need to begin to look to the needs of others and then respond with love. We can only respond to others with love when we have love rooted in our hearts. The Bible states many times that if we love God we must love others. In fact, the only way we can love God is to love others. If we stomp around and destroy others, we are not loving them, God, or ourselves. Love conquers all.
May we all begin to love. During this time, it’s easy to get caught up in all the debates and arguments on social media. I know because I’ve done it. May we decide to begin to love those who think and believe differently than us and respect how they may be perceiving life at this time. If we truly believe that we are all in this together, we will respect on another with love and give grace to those who may need it most. We don’t know what everyone is facing at this time, but we do know the One who can help them. May we all strive to represent Jesus and his love for us and others, so that when we do step out of our homes, people recognize Jesus. It’s not easy, but it’s so worth it in the end.
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