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A pastor I know gave a really good talk last week about greed and much simplified, the essence was that greed is simply wanting more than your portion, more than your allotment. It was a fabulous talk, but it got me thinking which is always a dangerous thing, indeed.
That’s all well and good under “normal situations,” like I envy my neighbor’s new car. It’s a whole other ball of wax when your “portion” seems to mean not being able to feed your kids five days a month while your neighbor is busy enjoying his new car. It’s a whole new ball game when the company you work for goes bankrupt and your paychecks start bouncing. You have a raging tooth infection and you can’t afford to go to a dentist. You drive on side streets because you can’t afford car insurance and new license plates. You get laid off from your job and the judge sends you to jail for not paying your child support.
Poverty is not a simple case of “they made bad choices and I didn’t.” It can involve some real learned helplessness and a system that seems as if it is rigged against you. Often it is exactly that, rigged against you. And so, the seeds of social justice are sown and begin to find fertile ground.
Someone smart once told me, “when the peasants are revolting, the peasants start revolting.” I’m not surprised by the chaos in our culture, by the collateral damage all around, by the way it often feels as we’re sitting on a powder keg or about to go off a cliff. I’m surprised by the lack of awareness and the hard hearts I encounter sometimes. It surprises me when people don’t seem to be aware of the opiate epidemic in our country or the skyrocketing suicide rates, or the fact that cops actually do over react these days and shoot people who probably don’t pose a huge threat.
Yesterday the Seattle cops shot and killed a 30 yr old pregnant mom with four kids in front of her children. She had a criminal record, mental health issues, and was struggling to raise four kids alone, one who is disabled. She was a woman crying out for help who wasn’t heard. This state is absolutely horrific with mental health issues. Some studies have suggested we rank 48th in the nation. You see evidence of this when you read about people who have a history of mental health problems. That means someone has had multiple contacts with the system, each one a cry for help. We failed this woman by sending her home to try to raise four kids alone, one disabled, while pregnant with another, a woman who simply broke. Than we shot her.
I get so frustrated sometimes with the sheer indifference some people seem to have towards the suffering going on all around them. Often it’s the indifference of Christian people. That’s a bitter pill to swallow. I don’t choke it down so well.
Charleena Lyles got more than her portion, more than her allotment of our complete indifference and it cost her her life.
Mike Ridenour said:
Being a Christian doesn’t flip a magic switch that makes our faults go away. It is a long, often painfully slow transformation that does not end until this life ends.
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insanitybytes22 said:
Amen. Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe that painfully slow transformation is what it’s all about.
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Marshall at Sharing God's Story (https://SharingGodsStory.net) said:
On this coast we didn’t get more than a headline about this event. But my friend and I were talking about this broken system and people’s feeling that they don’t need God because their life is already “reasonably happy” (that’s from the serenity prayer). This is true even for some (maybe even the majority?) of Christians. This thinking results in indifference to focus on the distractions we all find in our gilded cafe.
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insanitybytes22 said:
Good point about being reasonably happy. That really can create a kind of indifference. I don’t want to be too judgmental there because looking at the world’s brokenness and grief all the time isn’t healthy either. On the other hand,we’re supposed to have a heart for the lost and broken and in the Western world we often lose sight of that.
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ColorStorm said:
As much as it hurts to say, yes, ‘we’ shot her. The revolving door to nowhere in the midst of need where it is the greatest, we shot her. Our kin, our collective humanity We pushed her with a broom, hoping someone else would clean the mess, not seeing that we are just as messy.
Then we mistake her cry, (and all others) as something else, and make the shot to make our society ‘quieter,’ ‘safer’ and better……
If I hear your cry, God’s bottle of tears must be overflowing to the point of impending action. Well said msb.
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insanitybytes22 said:
Thanks, Colorstorm. That’s it exactly. We failed a member of our collective humanity and now she’s dead. In the chaos of politics that will all be forgotten as we point fingers at just about everybody and exploit this tragedy for all it’s worth.
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ColorStorm said:
And for what its worth, I hope some of your regular patrons (specifically those of different persuasions) take note of your identification WITH and
ownership OF these kinds of tragedies; thus giving you credibility to the nines.
(not that you needed help, but you get the drift)
It would be nice to hear an occasional accolade from friend or foe, if not to share the common grief.
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insanitybytes22 said:
Hey, that would be awesome, let’s share some common grief.
Unfortunately grief, taking responsibility for this tragedy and all the many things that went wrong, is likely to be all but forgotten as it just begins to fuel agendas, ideologies, and politics.
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Aethelfrith said:
I can’t help but think that the Red Pills would probably say “Good riddance!” to this event or mutter something about Darwin. I haven’t met this woman, but am guessing she’s likely black due to the “uniqueness” and the spelling.
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insanitybytes22 said:
They have indeed said good riddance and other ugly things as they are apt to do. When you believe hatred is a Christian value and indifference a virtue, ugly is going to be your destination.
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karenlts25 said:
Yes, its an ache that echoes nationwide, obviously some spots more than others. As followers of Jesus, those to be identified by “love genuine, without hypocrisy, undisguised and sincere,” *(Rom12) clearly we’ve missed the mark! As a parent of a young woman with cognitive challenges, in addition to life experiences I’m sure most have had, I’m surprised how often what is the real hindrance to “love thy neighbor” is uncomfortableness or fear that gets in the way of this love being shown.
Of course selfish interests are ever present. I wish I could say I have stepped in with every opportunity God has offered me to “be Jesus” to one of His lost children, but I have not. My own weariness, fear, series of past “bad experiences”, inconvenience or simply selfish pride has taken precendence.
“How can this really help? It’s not much? There must be more I can do.” So instead I do absolutely nothing.
Whenever I have doubted myself for “missing it,” the only thing I have found helpful is that searching of heart before the Lord in prayer (plus a conversation or 2 with hubby and his wise words!). Ssaanctification is a messy process without question. Heart desires remains to so be ready and willing in whatever or wherever He leads me to.
“Aristotle says that when a person does not feel loved he or she seeks to be admired. Human beings need the attention of others who appreciate, love, admire and affirm them. If people do not get this, or if those around them despise and reject them, treating them as if they did not exist, then emptiness, anguish and depression engulf them. People will do anything to find someone who will affirm them and make them feel valued.” – Jean Vanier
Thanks again IB. The challenge not to be “overcome by evil” when it seems its in the very air we breathe, seems impossible, yet I know it is not. Blessings to you this day!
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insanitybytes22 said:
Amen! Well said.
I doubt I could take care of four kids alone, one with special needs, and certainly not on the brink of homelessness, struggling with my own issues too. If I could not do it, not even with the Lord, how gut wrenching it is to me that we expected such a thing of this mother who was truly alone and crying out for help.
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SLIMJIM said:
That is so sad to hear of that mother being killed…=(
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rupambika018 said:
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