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I’m going to repent on behalf of the insensitive and cynical and to borrow from the Apostle Paul, of whom I am chief sinner.
This mostly applies to the Right side of aisle on account of the fact that the Left has so little self awareness I’m not sure they even know what being sensitive towards others even is. It’s more like, Wait, there are others?
See, insensitive and cynical, of which I am chief sinner.
I speak mostly of all the snide, snippy, little comments on the internet that basically amount to, “you made your bed, enjoy sleeping in it” or “I got mine, sucks to be you” or “guess you get what you voted for!”
Not that anyone on the Right cares, but “sucks to be you” and “serves you right,” are NOT winning campaign slogans and partially responsible for why the Right does not win very many elections in my neck of the woods. I’m all for personal responsibility but, “eat dirt, loser,” inhibits my ability to see how you might have policies that could be FOR me, rather than against me.
This mindset or heart condition comes from a place of exasperation and frustration. It comes from being able to see cause and effect in a way others often can’t. It comes from having a keen awareness of how unintended consequences work in a predictable pattern.
It comes from being unable and unwilling to feel anymore pain on behalf of others. It’s like, I already have to suffer and endure the consequences of your actions myself, and you expect me to pour out compassion and sympathy because you are now suffering from……the very predictable consequences of your own ideologies that you have now inflicted us all with??
Bahaha. Nope, I got no more cares to give.
By the way, it’s not entirely ALL coming from the Left, I mean as a Christian I get to suffer for the behavior of every pharisitical, cultian, abuser who has ever walked the planet, and the Emperor Constantine, too. People discover I’m a Christian and they don’t see me as a person, they see the Spanish Inquisition and a youth pastor back East who molested everyone at band camp 30 years ago.
Trust me, I get it, I understand where the bitterness and cynicism come from. I even find it darkly humorous that some women here who voted for gender neutral dressings rooms, are now outraged and horrified to discover there are actually men in them. So what did you think “gender neutral” meant?!
I’m not repenting of cackling hysterically over here in my little corner of the internet. “A merry heart is good like a medicine.” I’m repenting of the insensitivity and cynicism that often closes off my heart and the hearts of others.
The Bible has some good advice about all this. First of all, “love your enemies.” “Bless those who curse you.” “Forgive as you have been forgiven.” If you are merciful and kind towards the foolish, the Lord will be merciful and kind towards you when you are foolish. That’s not in the Bible, it’s a paraphrase based on some learned Biblical wisdom.
My favorite (or least favorite) is actually in Romans 15, “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” If you want to be a leader, it means you must absorb the cost. You must bear the infirmities of the lowest common denominator, or the weakest link in the chain. We are not here simply to please ourselves. If you are actually one of the “strong,” then you are going to have to make accommodations for the weaker ones and input that data into your overall equation. Rather then tearing people down for being weak, wrong, or foolish, your job is actually to build them up.
The next couple of verses in Romans really reflect that truth, too. “Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”
All in good humor here, but if we Christians could just learn how to consistently act and think like actual Christians, we could change the whole world.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
I can totally relate, I.B. It’s hard to say, “I’m so sorry this is happening to you. How can I pray for you?” when all I feel like saying is, “I could have told you it would come to this. – Oh wait, I DID tell you.”
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Right?! That’s a tough one.
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Me too; though it’s been aimed mostly at Conservatives for what they haven’t done for the last 30 or so years. When we warned them that surrendering the Culture War would lead to a generation indoctrinated into Political Correctness who’d someday become voters and parents themselves, it was blown off by the Right who said that only the Economy and National Security mattered. When we warned them that this indoctrinated generation would grow up and take over the Plutocracy and Security State they’d created and use it against us, what did we hear? “Go get your tin-foil hat!” “If you’re not doing anything wrong, what do you care if the Government spies on you?” “You sound like a Liberal: you just want to stop big companies from making money because you’re jealous!”
So yes, I don’t feel too sorry for the Right either.
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Can’t fault people too much for saying “I told you so” after 6yrs of being told were conspiracy theory nuts for trying inform/warn people of what is happening as we speak… “We told you” for 6yrs what would happen if you allowed the progressive (marxist) dems to regain political power. We were called everything in the book and even threatened and silenced. Well now it’s happening. We told you so
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It really is hard not to say “I told you so,” but if you do that everyday for six years, you’re going to be bitter, cynical, and depressed. LOL, and even more bitter and depressed in states like mine that have just gotten “progressively” worse for about 50 years now! 🙂
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Did not think Washington state could ever become worse than CA… that’s what I get for thinking.
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LOL! I hear you. We seem to be stuck in some kind of competition, a race to the bottom.
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WA politicians seem to have this strange love-hate relationship with California. I think it’s because so many of them got kicked out of California. Every time CA implements some kooky Whacko Left policy, WA wants to copy it with something more aggressively Liberal regardless of whether it works here or not. Like the plastic bag ban: CA got one so WA had to have one even though it rains about half the year in WA and plastic bags don’t disintegrate in wet weather.
One of the most ridiculous ones was that stupid water-wheel they built in Seattle. Santa Monica has one, so Seattle had to have one too: except that Santa Monica actually has a beach that attracts tourists and Seattle planted their’s next to a shipping dock. This is what happens when drug addicts run a city.
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Well, wait a sec… if Christians actually “thinked” like Christians with the goal of changing the world, would not non-Christians object to the changes?
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I guess that would depend on the changes.
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I’m not sure what parts the non Christians would even object to? Peace? Prosperity? Being kind to one another? Not killing people? Stable families?
It’s so ironic to me, the one country that really protects and defends your right to be a “non Christian” is this one, a Christian one. Freedom of religion (or non religion) is actually a Christian value.
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Perhaps the greater irony is that mankind.. humans.. can never change. That doesn’t mean we should not try, of course. But there is a futility in trying to change our evolutionary instincts.
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The irony is that you insist on affirming evolution, which is an ideology that declares humans are in a constant state of change, but then you turn around and proclaim it’s totally futile to expect us to “evolve and progress,” because allegedly humans can’t change. You can’t have it both ways, Doug.
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The variable in all that is time. Evolutionary change.. or rather adaptation.. takes time. Making humans.. all humans… behave the way we may want them to behave in order to pleasantly co-exist is at odds with our existing instinctual parameters. We were created with infinite variety which means some of us can play well with others and some can’t… and many never will regardless how much the rest of us try to make them. But as I said.. we still try because that in itself is also a nature of man.
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You mean like when I LOLed at the news that Biden had Covid and that China wanted to attack Pelosi? Sigh. I try! I repent and pray for them, but sometimes the laugh comes out first.
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Ha! I did say laughter was good, like a medicine.
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I tend to go with the Apostle Paul on this one 2 Corinthians 11:18-20 …18Since many are boasting according to the flesh, I too will boast. 19For you gladly tolerate fools, since you are so wise. 20In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or exalts himself or strikes you in the face.…
I try really hard not to be insensitive to people (stop laughing IB), but sometimes they hand it to you on a silver platter. I use to tell my daughter if you do that it is not going to end well for you. She would do it and come crying to me and she should have known better because I would tell her I told you that would happen now you have to deal with the consequences. I always looked at the infirm as those that are ill or disabled and as of right now stupid is not an ailment or disability.
I don’t go out of my way to rub things in people’s faces, but if they are going to willingly bring it to me well than that is their fault now isn’t it?
I was raised in an era where people weren’t coddled and that is because life is hard and you need to learn to survive or drown because no matter what anyone says no one really cares if you fail or not. I am seriously not trying to be hateful it is just the truth at the end of the day pretty much no one cares. I have picked people up and helped them to get on their feet again, but they better want the help because I am not doing all the work. Sounds harsh I am sure, but it is how I feel if I pick someone up for them to keep doing the same thing over and over then who becomes the fool? I will pray for them, but after awhile it is the best I can do for them.
I refer to myself as jaded rather than cynical, but maybe it is a little of both I have been so deep donkey poo for so long it is hard to tell where one starts and the other begins. I had a friend I tried to help her save her marriage she was seeing a married man on the side and he convinced her he was going to leave his wife of over 20 years and 4 kids to be with her. Against my advice she left her husband and divorced him and 3 years later the dude was still with his wife. She finally broke it off with him and is alone and has no one to blame but herself. I could have told her I told you so, but I didn’t she already knows that.
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Ha! That is a great passage from the Apostle Paul and provides a good counterbalance. Don’t be so open minded your brains just fall out! 🙂
The thing is, we are either being ambassadors for the Lord, or we are just advocating for a different political ideology, and sometimes there is even some overlap between the two. Regardless, saying things like “eat dirt, loser,” is not how we proceed to win hearts and minds or to demonstrate our strength and ability to lead. I am still laughing, but that is something we would say solely to “please ourselves,” as the Bible says, and not to present people with alternatives, and certainly not to share the gospel.
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yep. we might even learn to not be inclined to make retarded generalizations about the sensitivity or lack thereof of people on the left.
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I don’t make retarded generalizations about anyone left or right there are fools on both sides of the fence as a matter of fact Alex Jones is far right and he is one of the biggest fools I have even seen. Fools come in all shapes, sizes, genders, political sides, and race there is no one that hasn’t been a fool at one point or another in their life.
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good for you. comment was at aimed at you.
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“The left” is a collection of ideologies and political beliefs and therefore one can make generalizations because we are criticizing a group of ideas, a brand of thought, a collective belief system. “Retarded” on the other hand, is an individual insult and it also mocks and demeans an entire group of people with cognitive challenges, disabilities.
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Baloney. You explicitly referred to people, using the word ‘they’. A ‘collection of ideologies and political beliefs’ can no more be insensitive than the profession of babysitters can. Aside from this, it is obvious that the more abstract you want to posture it, the less you can even make ay kind of explicit descriptions anyway, because you are then in la-la land free to make up anything that your subjectivity fancies. When I hear ‘brand of thought’ I know a person is not talking about anything in reality. As I see it, if you cannot own this bias, in the name of Christianity nonetheless, then you are part of teh problem, not part of the healing.
Regarding ‘retarded’, the remark was directed at your comment — you — not some entire group of people. I thought this was a leftist ploy, by the way, no? Hijacking a word and pre-empting its connotations so that it applies to an entire tribe and can no longer be used expressively in discourse is an attribute of the thought police, right? I mean, uh, left? Or is that insensitive or something?
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I don’t believe we should be calling people “retards” on account of the fact that it attempts to shame an entire group for being cognitively impaired, a condition they often have very little control over.
Saying I am retarded in an attempt to demonstrate how insensitive I am is an almost amusing oxymoron. So you are disparaging the disabled while calling me names under what, the guise of tolerance and acceptance??
That is exactly why I made the quip I did. You will now inform me that I am not only retarded and living in lala land, I am also a bad Christian for not simply basking in the glow of all this Leftist sensitivity you have now heaped on me.
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I agree with you to a point IB though I have tried to share the gospel with some people and they told me to take my God and stick Him where the sun doesn’t shine and I don’t mean my armpit either. A friend of ours who we were working on asked if doing the thing with another man was a sin and we both said yes, it absolutely is. He then said that he would rather go to hell than to repent for that. What do you say to that? I mean we had discussed what hell will be like and still he would rather go there and suffer for eternity than repent. There is nothing more to say in my opinion because as far as I know God didn’t tell us to beat our heads against brick walls and that is what he became.
I was always told and still believe it that it is our job to plant the seed within a person, but not always our job to see it through one way or the other. Some times a little harsh honesty goes a long way and even Jesus lost patience with fools a few times. I do also believe we should be good ambassadors and give people a chance and I am laughing, but I don’t think I have told anyone to eat dirt though I tried it as a child horrible stuff unless you are a worm. I tell people all the time I hate no one and I do mean that. I highly dislike some people, but there is no hate or malice in me for them.
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Amen! All we need to do is invest in our own relationship with the Lord, pray for others, and let our lives reflect Him as best we can. We don’t save souls, He does.
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“This mindset or heart condition comes from a place of exasperation and frustration. It comes from being able to see cause and effect in a way others often can’t. It comes from having a keen awareness of how unintended consequences work in a predictable pattern.”
I’ve taught for many, many years, there are those who can “see the entire forest for the trees,” and others who can only “see the trees within the forest.” However, there are a few of us who can “see the whole forest made up of all the trees we see!” The same applies to the Word of God and especially in relation to the world around us and yes, most definitely (whispering) politics!
When you can see the individual situations/circumstances and realize the “forest” they produce, it CAN tend to make you “insensitive and cynical” and it’s hard to change that thinking, because it is created BY the world we see and we are IN it, though not OF it. But, Sis, when you can take that and TRANSFORM it into a Bible lesson, something we can take and use practically, as you often do, all it does is prove what Paul wrote in Romans 8:28; ALL things work together . . . . .
God Bless, and keep teaching us Bible Lessons!
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“If you are merciful and kind towards the foolish, the Lord will be merciful and kind towards you when you are foolish.” Excellent application of biblical principles.
I remember when I was in high school, I read “A Separate Peace.” I don’t remember anything about the book except one statement; “Sarcasm is the humor of the weak.”
As I age, and, hopefully, grow in wisdom, I can see the truth in that statement.
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Great point, Randy! Sarcasm really is a weapon of the powerless. That is why we have political humor and practice irreverence towards our leaders. That’s where we get the saying, “punching up.” We’re targeting the higher ups with some mockery and humor. That’s all well and good, it’s just that at some point as Christians we need to stop and ask, wait why am I one of the “powerless?” The same power that rose Jesus from the grave lives in us! We can move mountains with our faith!
So I encourage a lot of laughter, it’s good medicine, and perhaps even a bit of sarcasm too, but we need to remember we aren’t the weak and powerless. We aren’t the downtrodden and discouraged, either.
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Exactly! I use my sarcasm now, only with my good friends. They know I love them.
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There’s nothing wrong or cynical about telling someone that decisions have consequences.
I know persons who need to be told this because they fail to see the relationship between Cause A and effect B.
Such persons come up with anything but cause A as explanation for effect B.
Sadly, this is necessary because the media are not interested in accurately reporting but they are interested in putting their political spin on reality.
Because of political preferences the media also come up with with anything but cause A as explanation for effect B.
Inflation? The media come up with anything BUT the excessive money printing as an explanation for rampant inflation.
Exploding energy costs? According to the media anything and everything under the sun (Russia, Ukraine, evil oil companies etc.) is responsible for soaring gas prices except the fact that global oil production has fallen from 84 million barrel/day pre-pandemic to currently 80 million.
Helping the weak is one thing. Leaving those who are willfully blind in their darkness is an entirely different thing.
Reminds me of the biblical prophets (no I’m no prophet). These guys were neither politically
correct nor particularly sensitive. It’s not because they didn’t love their fellow men. It’s tough love. They told the people of Israel in no uncertain terms that their decision to turn away from God was the cause of their misery and of the misery that was to come if they did not change their ways.
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There is nothing “wrong” with telling people about cause and effect. The problem is that if you do that for a few decades, you really will become cynical, jaded, and bitter. So not only have you failed to fix the problem, you’ve now just hurt your own self.
Ha! I’m so cynical, I no longer believe that telling people what the consequences of their actions is going to create really serves any useful purpose.😂
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As a political convert I have to reject the idea that telling people the consequences of their actions is not useful. Insensitive, brutallly frank attacks on my political ideology did not prevent me from changing my political views. On the contrary. I’m thankful for the ruthless frankness of these attacks. Those countless people who helped me changed my views will never know what they did. It’s like planting seeds but you may never see the fruits of the seeds.
Making bad decisions is a luxury that we could afford for a long time. For a long time people could afford to ignore the consequences of their political decisions because they didn’t affect them immediately and because the effects were not immediately visible.. The economy is quickly going down the toilet and the excrement is about to hit the fan.
Now, more then ever is the time to drive the point home and to not let up.
Also, living and acting like Christians is no guarantee that you will see visible results in your life time.
No one can ever be more Christian than Jesus Christ himself.
Yet, he was rejected by many people and many people chose darkness instead of light.
Of course, He had the power to force his will upon the people but that’s not God’s modus operanti. He always, always respects our freedom and He leaves it to us to make the choice.
Yes, we can change the world but we may never see the change in our life time.
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That is really good to hear! I also tend to re-examine my views when people point things out. I don’t always change what I know to be true, but I do look at it and consider what they are saying. Much of my faith has come from atheists complaining about Christianity and having to ask, Wait is that even what God said? Is that what the Bible means?
I absolutely get fed up, I write people off, I don’t even bother. That’s the kind of cynicism I’m talking about, the kind that makes you snarky and bitter and less inclined to speak the truth to anyone.
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But isn’t that the entire point of expressing truth is that it’s YOUR truth.. the one you’ve opted to select of all other truths by which you have chosen to set your personal standard for judging others?
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No, some things are simply fixed, objectively true for all. It’s not “judging others” to suggest that if they keep walking forward on short pier eventually they are going to find themselves flapping around in the water.
When people insist, well “that’s your truth, not mine” and “stop judging me,” right before they plunge into the abyss, I tend to get a bit cynical about it.
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All true. Challenging, but true. I do regret what the internet has accelerated in us all.
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