I saw a man on the news last night...a farmer-type. Looked a lot like my Dad, like my uncles. Did not sound like them. But I knew within my heart that he used to sound like them...that is, reasonable, steady, calm. And I wondered if Dad and my uncles were alive today...would they sound angry, mean, vengeful? Would they be accepting bald-faced lies (or saying they do) just to put the thoughts presented by "the other side" down?
I heard myself talking back to the man on the news, and whoa! I had him blasted half way to Georgia with words that I did not learn at my mama's knee...as in, mouth meet soap. I had a smart return for every stupid word he uttered, and mine were cleverer by half. Maybe not wholly true, but his were entirely false. And I did not care because I was winning.
Who knew winning could feel so ugly?
Then the thought popped up: What if I were face-to-face with that man? Would I be so carelessly outspoken? So rigid, righteous and right at any cost? To my own Self?
I wonder if that isn't the source of our country's woes today...us, in a word. Us and our refusal to allow us to be thought anything but right...or righter-than-they-are at any rate. Specifically, what we are allowing ourselves to think about those we disagree with.
It is not them or their beliefs, it is the lack of any spirituality in our thoughts about them and their beliefs. Which is the price we are willing to pay to believe ourselves right...a lack of our spiritual foundation within...a reckless disregard of the God of our own understanding right here and right now. Later. Later, we'll pray. Later, we'll ask for the other fellow to be forgiven.
Father, forgive us for we know exactly what we do, and we do it anyway.
Thank you.
I wonder if that isn't the source of our country's woes today...us, in a word. Us and our refusal to allow us to be thought anything but right...or righter-than-they-are at any rate. Specifically, what we are allowing ourselves to think about those we disagree with.
It is not them or their beliefs, it is the lack of any spirituality in our thoughts about them and their beliefs. Which is the price we are willing to pay to believe ourselves right...a lack of our spiritual foundation within...a reckless disregard of the God of our own understanding right here and right now. Later. Later, we'll pray. Later, we'll ask for the other fellow to be forgiven.
Father, forgive us for we know exactly what we do, and we do it anyway.
Thank you.
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