I have been called argumentative on many occasions while pursuing
this view on life and have kind of reached a point where I now embrace the
argument but in a different form. The form being, “I have a fundamental problem
with people being wrong”. The first time I said this it rolled off the tongue
nicely and so I kept it. A lot of times we hear people say something like, “but
it’s his/her life, why can’t you leave them alone, they are old enough bla bla bla”,
and a lot of people cave in and back off at this point but I think that is the
wrong approach and this is me trying to explain why.
No it's not, it's Gods. So no, I won't |
- Because there is such a thing as wrong and right. The entire
basis of the “let them do what they want” argument is that everyone has their
own truth. What’s right for me might not be right for you. This line of thought
is not just false but is almost stupid. As much as we would like to live in a
world where we are completely different and different set of laws apply to us
that is not the world that we live in. One plus one will always be two, one
might argue that in some part of the world they might call the number two,
three thereby making one plus one three but that’s just a person who is in
denial, serious denial. I recommend you don’t give up on that person either.
Anyhoo we live in a world that has a set of rules, parameters if you will and
one of the most important of these parameters is... right and wrong, not gravity [woops]. And
in all we do we are either right or wrong, there is no middle ground, and this
leads me to
There really is no middle ground, no matter how bad you want it - We can’t leave people to live in the wrong. It is possible
that you could be wrong but that does not negate your duty to address the issue
at hand because if you are wrong then talking about it just might set you
straight, it’s a win-win. But here’s the thing, when parents see their children
doing wrong and potentially harmful things they stop them. The reason is they
know that what is going on will not benefit the person doing it at all. Why can’t
this apply in a peer to peer relationship? Picture a situation whereby you are
standing facing a cliff and at the bottom of the cliff there is a sea but the
sea at that point has rocks in it. You see the rocks because of where you are
standing but the person about to jump off does not. Person number one jumps
over and you stay silent, after all it’s their truth, according to them it’s
safe. Person two jumps off, you still stay silent. Person three, person four.
What kind of a sick person are you to keep watching people do what you know to
be wrong and potentially damaging? You might as well be kicking them off
yourself. Which brings me to
You might not be female but you sure are kicking them over - Inaction is an action. You not telling the person who’s doing the wrong to stop is you literally allowing them to destroy themselves. A bit harsh? Maybe but let me ethplain, not a typo. You leaving the person to keep doing what they are doing because of some sort of fear or whichever way you might want to paint your inadequacy is a negligence that is costing the person something. Each action has a cost and a consequence, the majority of these are eternal and you sitting by in silence is you watching them destroy themselves. You have consciously made the decision to do nothing. But the thing is you never turn away, you remain watching. Sometimes it gets so bad you even get amused by the destruction and it becomes one of your party stories. You know what I’m talking about, you’ve been there, you know the times when you have gossiped about that person throwing his/her life away. Talking like you are superior or better off when you could have done something to prevent it. You even begin to give speeches about washing your hands clean, Rubbish! How can you delight in the downfall of another? If you think back, it all begun with you being silent one of those times when you should have said something
- We owe it to them to help because we are not immune to
fault. Don’t for a second imagine that you will forever be on the side of
right. It’s more like all of us are standing in line with cliffs in front of us
and the only people who can see the bottom are those alongside us. Every
decision is us jumping. Sometimes it’s safe and sometimes it isn’t. Now if you
were a good enough friend to point out the potentially damaging decisions and
or wrong turns that are consistently being chosen won’t the others in turn help
you out when you are in the wrong? But if you are always watching and never
helping, when the time comes for you to need help, which will be sooner than
you think, no one will speak and a number of bad decisions down the road you
will realize you are in serious trouble. In the long run speaking out is highly
beneficial to you. You keep thinking short term and it will cost you, in some
cases it already has.
That's you and your short term thinking - The last and most important reason why you should have a
fundamental problem with people being wrong is the most important. It is the
one that you should remind yourself of every morning when you get up and every
night before you sleep. It’s because God commands it, especially of his
children. A Christian is supposed to be salt and light, I like the salt one
best for this because salt is a preservative so if you do not try to speak out
for the truth and tell people of the savior you are the salt that has lost its
saltiness, it cannot preserve anything. And what is that salt good for, I will
give you a hint, it sounds like this “na-thing”. There is virtue in telling
people about conserving the planet or speaking against injustice or speaking
against cheating and laziness but the penultimate goal should be to tell people
the gospel. It’s alarming how few people know the true gospel, its borderline
sad and it’s because of our criminal silence.
We need to constantly pray for grace and boldness to speak
out rather than be silent. It will cost you a slot or two in the popularity
rankings but keep at it because you know the cost of the person continuing
along that path. If they don’t listen, keep talking. Talk when you can, talk
when you can’t. The alternative is watching people continually destroy their
lives, don’t be that person… don’t.
Final words come from an athiest that shook me to the core. I tittle it how evil are you? But watch it and you will see what I mean
Final words come from an athiest that shook me to the core. I tittle it how evil are you? But watch it and you will see what I mean
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