Friday, July 24, 2015

Where's Grace?



Did you hear? Another "lunatic" shot innocent people. Again.

My heart aches for the victims, their loved ones, but my heart also aches for the shooter. Can you imagine living life with that much hate in your heart?

Every time this happens the same words are used: "terrorism" - "senseless" - "tragedy". The real tragedy is that we are too busy standing on our facebook status soapbox, playing games on our phones, or even binge watching a series on netflix to notice one simple thing: the person standing next to us.

When did we become a country that cares more about money than fellowship with our neighbors? A nation that cares more about having our opinion heard than working towards one common goal? A nation that care more about what car we drive than protecting our citizens?

You know what's funny? When true tragedy affects us personally - then we step up. Not when we see a child crying, or a mom ravaging for food in a dumpster, or an elderly person struggling to walk across the street - we don't step up then. But if a family member dies, a child is diagnosed with a deadly illness, or a friend suffers a tragedy - then we want everyone to help us, when we couldn't be bothered to help them.

We stopped seeing the good in people, but worst of all we stopped seeing the good in ourselves. We are better than our current circumstances. But we have to care more about the betterment of the future as a whole, rather than our individual needs.

I believe that people are inherently good. I believe that at the core of us, we have the ability to love more than we ever thought possible. I believe that we imitate behaviors - good and bad - of the people we surround ourselves with, but I also believe that it takes just one person refusing to be a part of the cycle to make real change happen.

It doesn't mean we'll always get along, or always agree, if that were the case life would be pretty boring. But it does mean we respect our neighbors, we love them in spite of differences, we let them know that regardless of the situation - we have their back.

No one ever became poor by giving.


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