Have you noticed where we live? We live in a world where we constantly turn our heads when we see something wrong. We love to pretend we are right even when we do something wrong. We are in utter desensitization of dishonesty. So much so, we expect people to lie and to betray us. I have been informed by many that this is how we have relationships now; we assume someone is going to cheat at some point. We’ve grown accustomed to it so much so that we have forgotten how to be honest with ourselves and with those around us. Does this happen to you every day?
“How are you?”
“Good! How are you?”
It’s almost mechanical. Billions of people scared to say: “I’m afraid of losing my job” or “My dog died” or “I’m feeling worthless today”. Billions. And for those of us brave enough to be honest, the response is mechanical too: “You’ll be okay.” Say those words with an ounce of sensibility, even if it’s a lie. But the ruthless usually say: “Get over it,” and the heart rippers say nothing and run away because this level of honesty scares them.
Welcome to our world, Millennials. It is also the world that produces presidential candidates who lie to our faces but again, we turn our heads. How dare we betray our parties? After all, our families have raised us with enough ammunition to repeat to ourselves and to others for a lifetime. We love to defend hypocrites because we are hypocrites as well.
This is also the world that produces men who get away with raping women with outstandingly lesser charges. We turn our heads and say it has nothing to do with race or socioeconomic status. We want to keep a good face on and say we don’t want to destroy this young man’s life. But I guess it’s not so bad for the young woman. We turn our heads and say it has nothing to do with her being a woman. Women, after all, are the most liberated they’ve ever been, aren’t they? I mean, we still tell them what to wear, how to behave, what to believe but…. We’re liberated. Give me a break.
We also live in the world that has churches that call themselves “Christian” and spew hate upon hate. We want to say we have nothing to do with them but… we do. Yes, we do. Every time you chose to not welcome and love someone in the LGBTQ community, you fueled them. Every time you called yourself a Christian or a Christian church and were more concerned about your theology rather than loving people and welcoming people, you fueled them. You did that.
I am tired of people saying they’re right. Can’t you see that none of us are? We are all wrong. We are all at fault! We know things are wrong and we turn our heads. We know the markets are selling to us and killing us but we turn our heads. We know we shouldn’t get that credit card, or buy that expensive dress, or eat that highly processed food item but we turn our heads. We are lab rats and we know it. We don’t like change, and certainly not for the better. We like to talk. Talking is easy. We get to pretend to be smart and be lazy. We do none of the work.
Am I going to give you an answer? I can give you one but you are probably not going to like it. Instead of giving you an answer, I’m going to tell you what I’m going to do.
First of all, because I am a believer, I am going to cling to Jesus. He is the only guide I can trust because, as you can probably guess, I cannot even trust myself. Second, I’m going to be ruthlessly honest with myself and others. Will it hurt? Yes. Will it be difficult? Of course. But that is the price to pay to cease to contribute to the sick world we’ve created.
How about you? Will you continue to fuel this generation or will you help build a better one?
