Picture this:
Little Joey just rode his back down the street. He picked up a rock and chucked it at the front window. I'm sitting in my house and say, "What the heck was that?" I hear another WHAP on the front window leading to Caleb's room. "Seriously? What in the world?" Then the big one. CRASH! A big ole rock lands on Caleb's bed and bounces to the floor. I stand in shock, then high tail it to the front door where I can see little Joey racing off on his bike. Thoughts: Joey's a jerk. Joey needs his butt whooped. Joey just bought a new window. What would you say the best course of action is? Are we going to say, "Boys will be boys!"? Are we going to say, "Kids suck! Let's get rid of them all!"? Or should we end in the middle? "Wow, that kid is a twerp. His parents need to pay for the window. He should apologize. The parents need to keep him under control." Personally, I'm choosing the middle ground option. My kids, in general, are good kids. They work hard. They love hard. They also fight sometimes. They have also lied at times. They aren't perfect, even though they are good. Right now, in our society, we are choosing sides based upon the first two options. We have people defending those who have done wrong under a group judgment. We have others that say, "The whole lot is bad. Get rid of them!" Why? Why can we not admit that there are bad people throughout each subgroup of humanity? I'm going to be blatantly honest. There are bad people with dark skin. There are bad people with white skin. There are bad people with brown hair. There are bad people with blonde hair. There are bad people with red hair. There are bad people with no hair. There are bad police officers. There are bad teachers. There are bad mothers. There are bad children. There are bad pastors. There are bad Christians. There are bad Muslims. There are bad Jews. There are bad bus drivers. There are bad athletes. There are bad men. There are bad women. There are bad people. When someone does something bad, they must be held accountable. We don't have to get rid of all people within that group. We don't execute all 7 year old boys because Joey through a rock through the window. But we can't let Joey think that throwing rocks at houses is okay. And besides that, what will all the other little boys think and do? Joey got to break a window, I can too. The problem with our society right now is that we have an all or nothing mindset. We need to pick out the bad and hold them accountable. We need to keep the faith that the majority is good. I think of it this way. A few years ago we had a group come on the scene - The Westboro Baptist Church. Y'all know who I mean. They stirred the pot with some messed up stuff and claimed it all under the name of Jesus. Any true follower of Christ was mortified, horrified, and just plain ashamed. We screamed from the rooftops, "That's not me!" Now what if you had to yell that about yourself because of the color of your skin? What if you had to yell that because of the badge you wore? What if it was a daily occurrence for you? Can we please stop with the all or nothing? Can we stop lumping people into "bad" groups? Can we just see each person for who they are? It's okay to say that a particular police officer did wrong without condemning the entire police force. We can admit that Dylan Roof is an example of a racist without saying that all white boys are racists. We can admit faults. We can assign discipline. We can love all. This isn't all or nothing. These are individuals. We need to be led by the Spirit, not our political parties or family bias. We need to be seekers of truth and justice. **There is no Joey. Our windows are fine (for now). Needed an example.
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AuthorI have a lot to say about a lot of things. Archives
May 2023
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