What have we done? What have we become? The opening words to For Today’s “Break the Cycle” music video have been swirling in my head for a few weeks now. Ever since the fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis, I have started seeing a shift in the way I see people. She may have been living in sin as a lesbian. She may have believed in a false narrative portrayed by the media. But when I see comments saying “nothing of value was lost”, it hurts me on a deep level. I still have a long way to go in this area. My first instinct when I see the chaos erupting in our world is to see all the people involved in that chaos negatively. However, as I have continued to draw closer to God over time, I have finally realized that my first instinct is not the right one to consult. I try to take a step back now and pray for all involved to be directed towards Jesus and his love. Again, I, of all people, know that I’m a work in progress with these things, but I’m starting to see this shift internally in me, and I know it’s a good thing. All the hate, all the anger, all the reaction, it’s highly upsetting. The dehumanization of people is sickening to me. It shows that we need Jesus now more than ever in this dying world we live in.
And it is a truly dying world. A majority of the world is becoming more and more apathetic by the second as we turn away from God and his absolutely unrivaled nature of endless love, endless forgiveness, and endless power. I truly believe apathy is the one thing that is killing us at an ever-growing pace today. We don’t see each other as fellow human beings anymore. We don’t show an interest or care in seeing people as God sees them. As another creation made for a unique purpose in life.
When you’re walking through a crowded store, do you ever stop and just consider the fact that you are surrounded by other people, all of whom God created uniquely and perfectly? When you do something like this, it makes it much easier to see how God wants us to treat people. God wants us to love others and reflect his love through our words and actions. Now, this does not mean to tell others they can just do whatever they want. That is not real love. Real love means to accept where people are, understand their positions, but to help guide them away from their sin and turn towards the only thing that truly matters in life, and that is getting right with God.
HE OWES US NOTHING
Do you want to know what real love is from the creator’s perspective? It’s the very essence of God. He owes us absolutely nothing, but still chooses to see us as his prized possessions and his beautiful creations. That isn’t just real love, it is radical love. He created humanity and calls us his children. His children! Just think about the fact that we are HIS children! The creator of the universe sees us as his little sons and daughters. And honestly, we should start to act like it as believers. What I mean is, since he owes us nothing, we should start to behave like children towards him. When we pray, we should acknowledge that he is our Father. He desires a father/son or father/daughter relationship with all of his children. That is true, radical love. Even with us being little twerps that can’t get out of our own way, he accepts us where we are and changes us for the better when we accept him and his truth into our lives. That is true love. Jesus told his disciple Peter to forgive not seven times, but seventy times seven when asked by Peter if forgiving someone seven times was the appropriate course of action. This was a way of telling us that, to an absurd degree, we must forgive people. That is true, radical love. Doing something like this to the extreme is one of the only ways we will ever truly break the cycle that we as a collective humanity have placed ourselves in. We need God, we need Jesus, and we need the Holy Spirit again. We need to love each other again as the world dies around us, no matter how bad it gets.
