Be the Good

I'm tired, friends. My whole soul aches with exhaustion.

I don't think that I've ever heard a quote that resonates with me more than this one. The world is an ugly place.

What has happened to common decency?
What has happened to love and kindness?
What has happened to empathy for those who are different from ourselves?

The world is ugly. and we perpetuate this ugliness every time we use our voices to tear others down instead of building them up. We make it worse by saying nothing when we read a post full of lies and gossip. It's okay to be angry, it means you care about something. It's okay to be outraged by evil, it means you know the meaning of good. It is NOT okay to take that anger and outrage and do something even worse. Temper tantrums are for toddlers, and most of them get in trouble for it.

Why do we still have bullying in school, even after so much effort has been made to eradicate it? Go on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter and you will quickly understand. We are a nation of anything goes.

"I have freedom of speech, and I will say what I want, darn it! Who cares who it hurts? This is my opinion, and I WILL say it!" 

Is this any different from the mean girl on the playground telling the chubby girl that she is gross? As responsible adults, we should be the ones instructing our children on how to behave, but so many of us don't even know how. Why is it okay to say something online that we would not say in person? Who cares if they live hundreds of miles away? That is still a real person. Would we speak to our mothers or children that way? Would we allow someone else to speak to them that way?

Friends, I know it sounds like I am soap-boxing, and maybe I am, but I can't help but think of all of the things that are happening in the world and in our country. The Internet has become one giant mean girl, and we are all her snickering friends. I know I am just as guilty as anyone else of becoming too excited or worked up over what someone else has said, and spitting out a reply. Would I have said it to that person's face? No, I would not have. That's not the type of person I am. Why should it be any different on the Internet?

It shouldn't.

Things like this have become the norm.

This is what we have become. We have made it perfectly acceptable for adults to openly make fun of 10 year old kids on the Internet. Why is this okay? Because she is a writer for a popular show, it makes it fine? I don't think so. It's not even accurate, but that's not even an issue these days. Bullies never worry that what they say is accurate.

This is not okay. 

As a society we must stand up to the mean girls (and boys) of the world. We must call out the ugly. We must drag this darkness into the light. And we must do it with love, compassion, and truth.

Lord, help us to be kind and loving, even to those that don't deserve it. Save us from our own selfish desire to be right. Help us to find the good and try to understand one another. Please help us to lift up our fellow man and become a better society in the process.

Maybe then, the world won't seem so ugly.