Yesterday's horrific tragedy in Connecticut has once again outraged our country's population. Facebook is teeming with prayers for the lost, opinions about the situation itself, and praise for those who put their lives on the line for the students and adults that survived. These are all natural reactions from people who truly care about others. We're numb with frustration and confusion...
but what do we do to change?
We don't like change in general--we like our comfort zones. Unfortunately, our current "comfort zones" are not working for more and more people. We have "politically corrected" ourselves into a total state of helplessness...followed by the creeping in of hopelessness.
If we don't change this path, we're only going to see more devastation.
Our country is broken--we're going to have to work together to fix it. And, since our public leaders have abandoned the idea of working together in favor of personal greed, personal ego, and a host of other deadly sins, it's going to be up to us as individuals and as small communities and neighborhoods to get back to our basic beliefs and make the change we wish to see in the world or our own back yards.
And we can do this. It takes guts and determination, but we can do it.
We need to remember that we're not always going to be comfortable; we're not always going to be treated with kid gloves by others; we're not always going to get our way in life...sound familiar? This is exactly what my mom and dad told me growing up. Yours probably did, too. If they didn't, then heed the message--that's life. It's not a bad thing...it's just life. Get over it.
We've painted ourselves into a proverbial corner. We've become hypersensitive to every little remark or action even if it's perfectly and rationally justified; as a result, we've turned into an "anything goes" society. We've given common sense the old heave ho...
We've lost site of our basic rule book--to us Christians, it is the Bible. In our 21st century world, we don't always like the absolute honesty of it, either. It doesn't fit our lifestyles very well--it doesn't fit in with our comfort zones. So we skimp in the reading, we avoid the obvious messages, we attempt our own interpretations, we soften the edges...and we suffer for it. The Bible was not written on our terms...it was written on God's.
How on earth do we bring back together such a fractured country where we currently reside? First, we need to pick up a mirror. What is that person staring back at us going to do?
Maybe start with that Golden Rule and truly do unto others as we would have done unto us. Don't like being cut off in traffic? Don't cut others off in traffic. Don't like to be talked down to? Don't talk down to others. Et cetera, Et cetera. Hour by hour, day by day. Creating a less hateful atmosphere where we truly look out for one another based on how we want to be looked out for might be a good start.
Just think...if we all start practicing this today, by Christmas Day there could actually be a bit of Peace on Earth in our corners of the world.
What a lovely birthday gift to our Savior.
