A Crisis Of Hate
I’m tired. I’m tired of the constant bad news. I’m weary of people condemning, throwing hate speech around like confetti, and the sheer beleaguerment of this time we are in. As if Covid-19 wasn’t bad enough with its restrictions on life, constant fear being heaped on us and the panic when another is diagnosed or passes away. To add insult to injury it’s an election year! One of the craziest ones to date when it comes to the palpable hatred and mudslinging even between friends. It’s overwhelming.
I read something about Anthropologist Margaret Mead that struck me deeply. It stated, “Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones. But no, Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken then healed.
Mead explained, that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal. A broken femur that has healed is proof that someone has taken time to stay with a person who has fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery.
Helping someone through difficulty is where civilization starts’ said Mead. We are at our best when we serve others.” #SayItAgain
What separates us from the animals is…compassion. Human beings possess more complex language skills and more advanced cognitive abilities than animals. My question is simply this…why then are we acting like animals? What has possessed us that we are acting so uncivilized toward our fellow humans?
We have behaved with such hatred and anger toward others over wearing or not wearing a mask, over why or why not to vote for one candidate or another or which media outlet is giving us the correct facts. I can’t remember people acting so vial and uncontrolled in my lifetime. It’s truly sad to see it played out over and over again on the news and Social Media. Jesus help us.
Mead stated the first signs of civilization was healing…people seeing hurting people around them and deciding to be the one who stays, dresses the wound, carries them to safety, and tends them through recovery. Being civilized is acting in compassion, regardless of race, color, beliefs or choices. Compassion is love in action.
Compassion is “a deep sympathy for the sorrows of others with a desire to alleviate their pain.” Period. To do that based on our humanity alone and not whether we agree with others beliefs, choices, color of their skin or their politics. To put stipulations on our compassion turns it into selfishness.
We can be better than this…we are better. It’s time to reel in our opinions and frustrations and begin to respond with the heart of God, the mind of Christ and the love which was so freely given to us at a time when we were far from God and estranged from his covenants. God chose to show us mercy and compassion and to bring us into relationship, can we not so the same? Let’s be the hands and the feet of Christ in this unpresented hour of hate and unrest. Let us be the ones showing mercy and grace to a hurting and confused world; offering the hope that we have.
It’s our love and our Christlike character that will show people a better way, a way to live civilly and in greater community with each other. I want to challenge all of us to examine our hearts, ask God to show us any areas where we have not acted/responded biblically. Let’s remember…the only Jesus this world can see is the Jesus seen through us.