Love and Hate: That Builds. That Hurts.

We all have our own opinions. I thank my sister-in-law for sharing Todd Starnes’s commentary, "The Devil Smiled" about one of this week's shootings. It allowed me to hone in on my own perspectives regarding our place and responsibilities today. Sometimes different, sometimes similar. I tried to respond within the same structure as Mr. Starnes wrote.

For whatever reason, I feel my perspective is at least a bit more...hopeful? It would really be sad if there was nothing you and I could do moving forward to make our world a brighter place.

Here it goes:

While I have absolutely no proof, I’m not in charge of whether I take the next breath or not, so I like to hope there’s something outside of me that powers everything: me, you, the birds, the trees, the water and land. Everything. That idea gives me hope.

Holding onto that idea, within that everything...

I see kids witnessing us adults say we’re all equal, but some get a pass when they do wrong & others get thrown away.

That hurts.

I see our Pledge says “under God”, but despite the fact many citizens cling to that phrase, we don’t serve the weakest and poorest as Jesus commanded. As all the big religions do. 

That hurts.

We ridicule women, LBGTIA, religions and ethnicities. Our ideas of “good and traditional” exclude so many in so many ways.

That hurts.

Corporations and rich people seem to play by different rules than the rest of us, so many ask, “Why bother?”. Protecting the self is becoming king.

That hurts.

We don’t talk about sex and violence openly. We don’t talk about love with one another. We just don’t talk with each other. 

That hurts.

If God is in all things, it’s in all of us and all of it. All we touch and see is originally God’s work. God can and should be beyond gender, politics, ethnicity, religion or country. We are the ones who turn on each other. We are the ones who decide to rip apart the beauty of what’s around us.

That hurts.

“The Devil” is our ego running a muck. It’s us. “The Devil” is us when we think we’re better or more right that someone else. 

What we call “the Devil” is hate. That hurts. We can do a lot to fix that.

What we call “God” is love. That builds. We can do a lot to build that.