Free Will - the ability we have to choose - is a precious gift that God in His infinite wisdom, gave to human beings.
Because of Free Will, is it surprising that people have chosen to look different, live different, love different, work different, play different, vote different and pray different??
So what lesson did God want us to learn by putting us in a world alongside people who are different (sometimes radically so) from us? With some people whose viewpoints and lifestyles simply irk and/or offend us??
Could perhaps God want us to learn Tolerance, Compassion, Kindness and Unconditional Love??!??
Could perhaps God desire that we learn to override our innate predatory human inclinations and learn to love people unconditionally?!? As Christ loves us?
Pastor Rick Warren said this:
"Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate."
Jesus loved unconditionally, and it was the power of love and kindness that compelled people to accept Christ as their Savior!!
Listen. It is inevitable that at some point, you will disagree with someone’s lifestyle, sexual orientation, politics or faith system.
But does that make it okay to spew divisiveness and hate? No, it does not. Yet many of us do. Daily. Often unwittingly.
#GetInsight!
Because it is precisely those everyday droplets of intolerance - through our words, through our body language and through the silly, uninformed commentary that we circulate on social media - which eventually grow into the mighty sea of hatred and divisiveness that we are experiencing in our world today!!!!
Take intolerance, let it stew till it generates rejection and hatred, mix in a large dose of religious extremism, and then stuff them into an individual who is mentally unstable. Sprinkle in the sick individual's access to deadly weapons. Voila! The perfect trigger has been generated to initiate a senseless attack on innocent people.
This weekend has been horrendous here in Orlando in the aftermath of the Orlando Massacre. Tragic. Senseless. Yet today will be even more tragic if we fail to learn this important lesson from today:
We ALL have a role to play. EVERYTHING we say and do affects this world that we live in. We may think that what you do is inconsequential; like a drop of food coloring in a swimming pool. But you DO have an effect! And small behavior changes we each make, collectively will have a significant effect!
God gave you the Free Will to impact the world that you live in. What will your impact be? Hatred or love? The choice is all yours...
#ChooseTolerance
#ChooseCompassion
#ChooseKindness
#ChooseLove
