I'm tired...

I'm so tired of all this mess.

from wonderopolis.org

I'm tired of hatred being spewed in the name of “progress.” I've tried to simply ignore it, taking the ostrich approach of sticking your head in the sand and hoping it will all just blow over. Surely, we're better than this—smarter than this. Surely, people will get tired of the fear-mongering and race baiting and police blaming. Surely we'll look at those who stand up and rant about how we can't "discredit one person's experience" (though it is perfectly fine to discredit the experiences of millions of others) and see them for what they are—pitiful, insecure, lost people.

The thing is, that's not happening. While I'm trying to ignore the chaos and hatred, it's tearing everything down around me. It's taking this country that I have always loved, the country that my brother fought and died to defend, and it is twisting it into something dark and scary that I don't want my babies growing up in.

We live in what has, from its very conception, always been one of the greatest nations on earth. Through a commitment to God and each other, we have lived a blessed life. We haven't been perfect—because we're human, something people have somehow forgotten—but together we've moved forward. We've pushed past the pain because that's what it takes to make things better.

But now? We've stopped moving forward. So called “leaders” are using their positions to create division by preying on the fears and emotions of the very people they claim to help. The President uses a memorial service for 5 slain police officers as a platform to promote himself, to malign the men and women who put on a uniform each day to step between the good and the bad, and to tell us that we are racist and bigoted.

We are told that it is racist to say all lives matter. We are told that being white makes us racist—and if we don't agree, it's just that we don't realize how biased we are.

We have always poked fun at the “Monday morning quarterback,” the one who sits on the outside looking in and talks about how he would have won the football game if he had been in the quarterback's place. Why, then, do we take it as gospel when people start talking about what a police officer should or shouldn't have done in a life-threatening situation? Someone like me—someone who has never worn a badge and has never put myself in harm's way, someone who hasn't been trained as a law enforcement officer—shouldn't watch a youtube video or a facebook video and decide that I have suddenly become an expert in self-defense tactics and in the instant assessment of threat that our police officers are tasked with on an almost daily basis.

Lies are spewed from pulpits, news desks, and stages. And the sad thing is, even though the lies are wrapped up in undisguised hatred and anger, people are swallowing the lies and feeding them to their children.

Racism and hatred are taught. Our kids are born without it. The first time my daughter noticed a black girl (not the first time she had seen someone of a different race, but the first time she pointed someone out as different), she told me, “That girl has beautiful skin.” Fast forward a couple years to Raiden in kindergarten in a Toledo public school. She came home crying the first week because the girls in her class wouldn't play with her because she had “ugly white girl hair.”

Racism is ugly. And yet right now it is being held up as something good, a cause to be championed by Black Lives Matter.

What happened to “love your neighbor as yourself”? What happened to “be kind one to another”? What happened to living a life worthy of respect instead of demanding that those around you don't “disrespect” you? Why have we fallen victim to the race baiters who want nothing more than to drive us apart and stir up fear?

We should be better than this. You know what's pitiful? There are people who call themselves Christians who are standing on both sides of the “protest” lines, hurling insults and hurtful words at each other. As followers of Christ, we are called to be different. We are called to be salt and light in a fallen world. And right now, when our country has been so suddenly plunged into darkness by our “leaders”—now is when our light should shine the brightest.

"Remember His call, and live by the royal law found in Scripture:

love others as you love yourself."

~James 2:8a

Stop blaming.

Stop hating.

Stop using your words to cause division and fear.

"The tongue is a blazing fire seeking to ignite an entire world of vices.

The tongue is unique among all parts of the body

because it is capable of corrupting the whld body.

If that were not enough,

it ignites and consumes the course of creation

with a fuel that originates in hell itself.

Humanity is capable of taming every bird and beast in existence,

even reptiles and sea creatures great and small.

But no man has ever demonstrated the ability to tame his own tongue!

It is a spring of restless evil,

brimming with toxic poisons.

Ironically this same tongue can be both

an instrument of blessing to our Lord and Father

and a weapon that hurls curses

upon others who are created in God's own image."

~James 3:6-9

Start loving.

Start reaching out.

Start helping each other, because it's awfully hard and lonely to navigate this fallen world on your own.

"Who in your community is understanding and wise?

Let his example, which is marked by wisdom and gentleness,

blaze a trail for others.

[...]

Any place where you find jealousy and selfish ambition,

you will discover chaos and evil thriving under its rule.

Heavenly wisdom centers on

purity, peace, gentleness, deference, mercy,

and other good fruits untainted by hypocrisy.

The seed that flowers into righteousness

will always be planted in peace by those who embrace peace.

Where do you think your fighting and endless conflict come from?

Don't you think that they originate in the constant pursuit of gratification

that rages inside each of you like an uncontrolled militia?

You crave something that you do not possess,

so you murder to get it.

You desire the things you cannot earn,

so you sue others and fight for what you want.

You do not have because you have chosen not to ask.

And when you do ask, you still do not get what you want

because your motives are all wrong--

because you continually focus on self-indulgence."

~James 3:13, 15-18 through James 4:3