Tonight I got kicked out of a Christian Facebook group. Man was it a good time! Some chump admin was arrogantly coming down hard on people for using the word "Easter" instead of "Resurrection Sunday", even making a rule that the word would NOT be allowed on the group's page (yes, he used all caps... very totalitarian, don't you think?). A perfect target for my venting.
It's been a tough week. Our furnace died, so I dropped resources intended for a car on replacing it (we've been in the house only four months!). Then the weekend came and I spent it vomiting, having picked up some bug. Monday brought frustration as an unreasonable person caused me much trouble at work, refusing to accept a tiny inconvenience that would save me from a large conundrum. Then today the Jeep left me stranded for hours. The pump was primed. And I let off some steam.
What happened to decency? What happened to "love your neighbor", that second command Christ emphasized so readily? Why are people jerks? Not one passerby asked me if I was okay the entire time I was stranded. Not one.
We live in a world where a good chunk of the population is ready to elect a president who calls people fat pigs. Why doesn't that bother people?
I pick up litter. And hitchhikers. And spirits. I am often regarded as some kind of odd outsider for these practices. Why?
I let that Facebook admin have it; I was a bit harsh. I sarcastically told him Jesus would certainly be giving him a gold star for his efforts to cleanse the sinful world of the word "Easter". I corrected his grammar. I blatantly opposed him when he claimed the Holy Spirit had led him to his war on "Easter". I called him an arrogant ass. And he was.
But maybe our answer is right there: I mistreated this man because he had mistreated others and because I was exhausted and because his post was asinine. But Jesus didn't call us to love our nice neighbors, just our neighbors. This man behaved foolishly, and certainly his priorities are ridiculously out of sync with Scripture, but Jesus did not qualify His command, giving us a loophole to skip by the ass clowns of society. On the contrary.
What happened to decency? Maybe I should start with a look at myself. After all, my comments were not exactly loving. And I really enjoyed giving them. A previous mentor once told me that I would know if I had a servant's heart by my reaction when others treat me like a servant. I could have done decently better.
