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A compro-matic is a new fangled machine much like a food processor. You put your whole self into one end and you get spit out the other end, sliced, diced, and chewed up.

Somebody smart once taught me that the middle of the road is where all the roadkill goes. You aren’t walking down the middle of the road because people want to hold hands with you and sing kumbaya, you’re walking down the middle of the road because people want to transform you into roadkill.

Them’s some tough words, some harsh truths, some genuine gallows wisdom that comes from the school of hard knocks. I’m sorry if anybody ever told you that people are all about peace, love, and smelling like patchouli.

First, some context here. There truly are some people who need to become acquainted with the softer side of Sears, who need to learn the fine art of compromise, who are lacking the ability to play well with others. I am not one of those people, I am someone who drives the crazy train right off the tracks and into the other far ditch. I know how to compromise, I know how to play well with others, I know how to go along to get along. I also know how to sell my soul in the process, until I am much like the invisible woman, erased, tip toeing around and walking on eggshells, being fully praised for my complete non existence and totally benign nature.

“Benign,” it means a useless clump of cells, serving no real purpose. A miraculous thing if you are facing a cancer diagnosis, not so good if it becomes your entire identity and you are a living creature with breath still in your body. True story, been there, done that, and probably should have gotten a tattoo to commemorate having survived the abyss of the compro-matic.

And that is why I can stand here and confidently say things like, No, we do not “just need to learn how to work together.” No, we do not, “just need to learn how to compromise.” No, we do not, “just need to find unity in the path forward.” There is no “we” here, unless you are carrying around a mouse in your pocket. You may well need to learn those things, I do not.

You simply cannot negotiate with bullies and terrorists. You cannot just send a social worker out on a cop call to deal with domestic violence or mental health problems. You cannot simply love people back to good health. Jesus sure can, but you yourself, for-geddaboutit. In fact, you can make the situation much worse with misplaced compassion and compromise.

That is just as true of personal situations as it is in national politics.

There are a lot of things I do with some cheerful fortitude because of force, tyranny really. That does not mean I am in agreement or that I approve, or that “we are all on the same page.” You have certainly not won over my heart and mind, in fact, I probably have no respect for you at all. That is part of the reason why God gives us freewill, because He desires our hearts and minds, our respect and our love, not just our reluctant compliance.

There is a time to do things that you just aren’t “feeling.” There is a time to put on some cheerful fortitude and do what you know is right, like exercising, for example, or eating broccoli. That however is not the same thing as surrendering all to someone else’s needs in the name of unity and a rather perverse distortion of the concept of “peace.” We have peace with God, and “as much as it rests with us,” peace with one another, but we do not have peace with the world, nor peace with what is evil, nor peace “at all costs.”

Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

Christian people need to stand up and they need to honor the wisdom of those of us who have been around the block a few times, who understand the temptation of just wanting to go along to get along, the temptation of desiring “peace” and to “just put this all behind us,” and to come back to the happy center.

Nope! Anybody who demands you have to jump into the compro-matic and change who you are and what you believe in, in order to have “peace and unity” with them is not your friend, they are looking to take hostages. There are a lot of broken people in the world, and we are not at war with people, but you sure better be at war with the spirit behind the deception.