Just Do It!

By | Thoughts on Things

As I was searching my brain for a new blog, (this one) the word love kept rolling around in my head, even as I tried to ignore it. Then one night I got a fortune cookie that read: “Your meaning of love is special. Why not share it.”

Seriously?

I have a Christian friend who thinks God speaks to her through fortune cookies, so I glanced heavenward and did what I sometimes do. Argue.

“I’m not in the mood for love, Father God! Not in this American meltdown we’re experiencing. Mostly, I feel like Humpty Dumpty teetering on the Berlin wall before it came crashing down. No! Won’t write it.”

Ever argue with the Almighty? Useless.

Let the record show, I started this grudgingly.”

Why grudgingly? I felt the non-love, even though I disliked both presidential candidates. Like many of you, I’d seen more random acts of pettiness, childishness, and political hyperbole, than I had random acts of kindness or love. So, love was not the emotion filtering through my heart.

The divisions amongst friends and families—holdover hostility I call it—and some of it unrelated to the election, is unchallenged in my lifetime. In the 1960’s, we were self-righteous, angry, we burned our bras and protested everything from women’s rights, to black rights, to the war in Vietnam. But people weren’t mean. Weren’t mad at each other. I didn’t think my dad was horrible because he was on the other side of the great divide. We were mad at the establishment, the “man,” the police, and many of our universities. In groups, we felt brave, but one on one . . . hey, we were pleasant. This election did not make me bitter, though I have reason to be. It’s made me sad.

And I suppose I could blow off this love assignment by throwing out the most famous piece of love advice ever spoken, and say, just do it! That would be Jesus’ command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Yet, I can’t blow it off. The message of love has never been more serious or more challenging, and as Christians we must do the hard work to search it out. People think “love your neighbor as yourself” is impossible. I’m suggesting if that’s true, it may not be for the reason we think.

Perhaps it’s because we can’t love ourselves.

I recently realized, not exactly for the first time, but perhaps in a different way, that without the aid of a mirror, I have no idea how I look. Yet because of that device, I daily see my reflection. Therefore, I judge my appearance—I pick at it, color my hair, trim my eyebrows, put on makeup, hide it, flaunt it, disguise it, all because my reflection is there for me and everyone else to see.

What if our soul reflected in the mirror? What if our soul looked back and exposed our thoughts and opinions?—Our judgmental tone. Our crass delight over causing someone pain we felt wronged us. Our piety at our rightness. The way we’ve belittled someone who has gotten our dander flying, just enough to set them down a notch or two, not maliciously mind you. What if, as surely as people see our nose and our eyes, they see our soul?

Is there makeup for that?

No erasure or spackle or cover-up can take away the stain of what crawls around inside us, but lucky for us, no one sees. Except for God.

He watches our soul pile up carcasses of crassness, maliciousness, self-righteousness. . . rusting and polluting our thinking, our heart, and our mind. We enjoy our enemies’ demise. We delight in our wins. We eschew the heart-searching tough choices that many must consider when those choices oppose our viewpoint.

“Take the telephone pole out of your own eye,” the Bible says, “so you can see the splinter in your neighbor’s eye.” Yes, please, for everyone’s sake. Take it out!

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” Maybe Jesus was kidding.

Most of us believe the opposite of love is hate, but the late author and Nobel Laureate, Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, believed it was indifference. And I can’t help but wonder if it is our own indifference we despise as much as the people on the other side of the political spectrum or the loonies on the other side of the family. We want change, but we don’t want to do the hard work to help effect a change we believe in and think we deserve. Maybe it’s time for a little self-examination, introspection, reflection, whatever you want to call it.

The issues are myriad, and they are legitimate, and will never be resolved by name calling and nit-picking. In the past few years, I believe, changes evolved too quickly. We must consider our neighbors (over the mountain, around the lake, across the state line) wherever they are, and whether we like them or agree with them, or not. If we roll over them, it will only be a matter of time until they return the favor. We’re seeing that currently and I suspect if things don’t work out well with the present administration, we’ll be seeing another bulldozer barreling through Washington D.C. in four to eight years. This could go on forever and to some degree, it has.

Today, however, civility is sadly missing. Tolerance, kindness and thoughtfulness are gone from public discourse, and from amongst social media friends as well. Not only do we not ask “what would Jesus do?” we are more likely to witness what Lucifer has wrought. And, guess what? It’s seems to be okay. Many of us emulate the politicians we claim to distain, so therefore, we should well understand why things have ceased to work in Washington D.C. Since it has morphed down . . . or perhaps up. To us.

And like those D.C. hot shots, we are taking the so-called high road because there is only one course of action: ours! We must incite, disprove, refute, disavow, inflate! (Yes, it’s sarcasm.)

I’m not saying there aren’t avenues for causes we believe in, but when we distress others and don’t care about their feelings, our behavior mimics the very things most of us say we deplore and disavow in politicians and the media.

Can we just chill for a minute and realize there may be something else going on?

There’s an evil force at work in the world. It isn’t just in the form of Middle East beheadings of Christians, a nightclub exploding in Orlando, or a cartoonist bombing in Paris. It’s in the ongoing banter you and I witness daily. In the workplace. On Facebook. On Twitter. Around the supper table. On television. If you can’t feel it and if you haven’t seen it on both sides of the political divide, you aren’t paying attention. And guess who that evil is dancing with? Yep. We’re voodoo dancing. The WEE WEE ON YOU dance. The I AM RIGHT dance.

It’s time to quit dancing to the enemy’s tune. Slow it down, look at that person across the political divide and listen to them. No, stop. Listen. Quit using the sound bites unbefitting a child of God. Quit acting like one of those Neanderthal broadcasters. (Sorry) The Bible tells us the real enemy is sowing all this discord. And it’s not Fox News, CNBC, female marchers, political candidates, or even Muslim terrorists! Gulp.

Nope, for all those who oppose us and even for those who want us dead, the Bible says these are not our enemy. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,” St. Paul writes in Ephesians, “but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” We cannot fight evil with our bad ass attitudes and willful mouths. Unless that mouth is uttering prayers. The enemy is spiritual and he and his minions are swarming. If we could see what’s happening around us, we’d be terrified. We’d spend more time on our knees asking God to heal our nation, our hearts, and our neighbors. To guide our President and our elected officials.

There is only one thing that overcomes evil and it has nothing to do with being right or  winning. We have to start dancing to a different tune and praying like our country depends on our prayers. Depends on God.

We’ve proven we can’t come together without God’s help. Certainly, we’ve had time to get over the madness, the rudeness, yet it continues. We are all human beings and we are inter-related. Certainly, Christians believe this. What’s good for you may not always be good for me, but it’s a marriage of sorts. Waltz around the lake a few times, think about edifying your neighbor. No screaming adjectives. Think about how we must sound to God and to the rest of the world— like spoiled brats who must always get our way.

I’ll grant you, we haven’t had good role models in Washington D.C. or even in our communities. We must remember that the D.C. hot shots work for us and as their boss, maybe the role-modeling has to start with me and with you.

So, I guess, for all the reasons I’ve stated, I didn’t want to write about love. Because love is hard work. Love makes us search our hearts for self-hatred and spite that embitters us and keeps us from the dialogues we must have. Love means forgiving when these discussions go awry. Love puts the onus for restoration on you and on me. Not in the shouting matches of television fame, but in the quiet moments when friends and families discuss issues that are breaking their hearts. We must bring God into the discussion, pray, pray, pray, and listen with His heart instead of ours.

In Ephesians, St. Paul writes, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.”

Translation: Say nothing bad about your neighbor. Just build him or her up and make them shine before those around you, so much so that everyone is blessed. In today’s world that almost sounds funny. Yet, that’s God’s standard.

The next time I witness non-love on Facebook or elsewhere, I’m going to search for something kind that person has posted. Or try to remember something good that person has said. And I will say a prayer asking for God to replace their non-love with love. To keep the enemy away from them.

In First Corinthians, St. Paul writes: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I have become as sounding brass or as clanging cymbals.” As beautiful and as true as that passage is, and it’s one of my favorites, my thought is that St. Paul must’ve been a prophet. Two-thousand years later, clanging brass and cymbals are what we sound like.

So, what do you think? Is it possible we can love those we disagree with?

We’re Americans. And we come in every color, flavor, and stripe. Let’s show the world we can do this. Better still, let’s show the enemy we won’t let him win. Let’s be the people who really do love our neighbor as ourselves. It truly does just come down to that one commandment.

Jesus had it right all along. Imagine that.

Happy Love Month

Alan & Karyn2

12 Responses to " Just Do It! "

  1. As always, you are right, and you say it so beautifully. I have been doing some hard soul searching, and making an effort each day to turn every negative thought into a positive. Not so easy sometimes, but possible. I found an inspiration years ago, and at my worst, I remember her.

    Eva Kor was a child when she and her identical twin became part of Dr. Mengele’s insane medical experiments on twins. They both survived and were part of a famous photo of the children being liberated from Auschwitz. Eva and her sister are the two little girls at the head of the line.

    What had been done to the children caused Eva’s sister to be very ill all of her life. Eva searched for records of what had been done to try and get her sister’s condition reversed. She was not successful and her sister died. But, she died in Israel, with her husband, her children and grandchildren all around. Mengele never stole her love.

    At some point, Eva knew that hate had destroyed the Dr. as well as her family and so many other Jews and she has made her life work to forgive the Nazi atrocities in her own family, and to share the message of love and forgiveness with everyone. I first heard of Eva at the worst of my own journey and reached out to her. It is a blessing every day. This little woman was touched by evil in ways we will never understand, and even now, in her nineties, she still travels the world ‘infecting’ everyone she meets with love and healing.

    I love your blog for this month. You too know how to ‘infect’ all of us with enough love to cover a multitude of reasons to hate. One of the many things I admire about you! “And the greatest of these is Love.” Happy valentine’s month, my friend.

    • karyn@suddenlink.net says:

      Such a beautiful story and one worth mentioning during the love month. Thank you for sharing it. Role models like Eva are unbelievably not that rare in the worst of circumstances, but somehow we ignore them and follow our own selfishness. Im hopeful that people will rise to the occasion and be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Like you, my sweet friend, who always rises above the fray. I am so proud to call you friend. ❤️

  2. Jane Clower says:

    (From 365 Pocket Promises From The Bible)
    A promise about ENEMIES
    When you need to show love to your enemies

    Don’t repay evil for evil.
    Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you.
    Instead, pay them back with a blessing.
    That is what God has called you to do, and
    he will bless you for it.
    I Peter 3:9

    Showing love to your enemies seems completely unreasonable —
    unless you realize that you were once an enemy of God until he forgave you.
    When you love your enemy,
    you see that person as Christ does — someone in need of grace and
    forgiveness.
    Getting to that point takes prayer.
    When you pray for someone,
    you can’t help but feel compassion for them.
    When you respond with prayer and
    blessing
    instead of retaliation when someone hurts you,
    God promises to bless you.
    God will even turn your enemy into your friend.

    Karyn, Thanks Be To God for directing you to address Love. If we want it we have to give it. Love begets love. (And, sadly the opposite emotions beget the opposite emotions.) Collective hearts, minds and souls reciting The Lord’s Prayer multiple times a day might be our loving way to March For Love. P.U.S.H. – Pray Until Something Happens. Love you for who you are and what you do. Grateful to have your heart touch so many people. Love and Blessings, Jane

    • karyn@suddenlink.net says:

      Jane, I love this pocket promise! And it’s a perfect complement to my piece. Thank you for taking the time to share it. If Christians as a body would PUSH, something grand would happen. I really believe that. Thank you for your uplifting words Jane, for touching me. Love you, sweet sister.

  3. Sharon blackburn says:

    Love it Karyn love you! So true. I have been so discouraged by people and their actions and words. I have cleaned out my Fb friends not because I did not like or love that person. I did it because of their hate and their nastiness. I really like Fb when I read beautiful stories written by you, family pictures, recipes, just fun things. Can’t stand to see such anger. Keep writing!! So happy God keeps pushing you and I love the way you try to fight back. Lol Not going to happen and so happy it doesn’t.

    • karyn@suddenlink.net says:

      Sharon, I understand exactly where you’re coming from. We just have to remember we are dancing with the King. And, yes, God uses some strange tactics to get me off my own hi horse sometime. I hope He always wins! Lol I loved what you wrote.

  4. Linda Jarrett says:

    Wow Karyn such spiritual profoundness. I know what God expects of us, no actually demands of us, but most of us fall so short. Thank you dear friend for always sharing your light and insightful wisdom with me. I needed to hear this. I love you! Linda

  5. Carol Maynor Parsley says:

    Karyn I love your posts, please keep them coming.

  6. I’ve read all the other comments, my dear D.R., and see how your power of the pen, or your weetle fingers hammering out on the computer touch people. I’ve been often called a ‘Pollyanna’…that I see only the good, the beautiful, the best in life. (I’m a middle child, I hate controversy, don’t get into politics and religion blatantly, but in my subtle obscure ways…don’t need that limelight) Even when ‘evil’ strikes in my life (and, I’ve had my share), I’ve always been one to say, what good is there in this occurrence. I suppose this may be my way of filtering and dealing w/all the negativity of life, but one thing’s for sure, it’s brought me less stress, angst, anxiety and falling out w/others over what you’ve so eloquently described in your essay. It’s not a form of ‘avoidance’…rather it’s a way to hopefully live what you’ve talked about here. So, I suppose I shall keep my Pollyanna outlook b/c as you’ve closed with, it is our supreme commandment. Thank you for this confirmation, luveeee xoxox

    PS…Keep your words coming and don’t overlook those fortune cookies!! xoxo

    • karyn@suddenlink.net says:

      Interesting thoughts on this, Alice. I don’t think you’re a Pollyanna, though. Mostly I say that because you’re not afraid of the real world. You’re a positive thinker and a positive person and when the crap hits the fan you’ve figured out how to survive. In spiritual language it’s called God’s rest. Our Heavenly Father giving us what we need, when we need it. And just as importantly, us receiving it. I think you receive well. As an aside, Alice, even an unbeliever can tap into God’s laws. The Bible says he rains on the just and the unjust. Sometimes our state of mind is such or we’re removed from him and think he’s not there. But he’s a good Father. And He knows when we need Him. Thank you for your insightfulness, darling girl! ? And thank you for reading and supporting me! Xo

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