Two Things: 1. People can be idiots. 2. You are a person.
“They’re a bunch of idiots,” said most people at least ten times a day (replacing idiot with your word of choice). It’s hard not to. People do surprisingly stupid things. That goes for children, siblings, friends, spouses, co-workers, politicians, and presidents.
Some of the dumb things people do are mistakes or accidents that they wouldn’t do if they really thought about it, like making a right-hand turn across three lanes of traffic “You idiot!” And some dumb things people do are because they are sinners and sinners, by definition, often miss their mark, even with the best of intentions.
Just because people are doing things that seem stupid and senseless to you doesn’t mean they have evil intentions. I know I’ve done some idiotic things in my life that have affected people negatively, at least from their perspective, and I don’t have an ill-intentioned bone in my body – never have. But I am, doubtlessly, in their book, “a blooming idiot.”
Sometimes good intentions have horrible consequences. As Maxwell Smart used to say, “Missed it by that much.” We fall short, we sin, mis-step. The Apostle Paul wrote, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” Roman’s 3:23. People sin. Sometimes willfully, with selfish motives and sometimes accidentally with the best of intentions. Either misses God’s ‘mark’ of holiness and either number us with a world full of ‘idiots.’
So don’t hate the idiots that cross your path during the day, you don’t know if they are evil genius’s or bumbling do-gooders. And even if they are up to no good, hate won’t help. Hate sin, not people. We’re all people, all made in the image of God, and we can only truly help each other by love, not hate.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
Elder Thaddeus a wise monk from Serbia wrote that “It seems that we do not understand one thing: it is not good when we return the love of those who love us, yet hate those who hate us. We are not on the right path if we do this. We are the sons of light and love, the sons of God, his children. As such we must have His qualities and His attributes of love, peace, and kindness towards all.”
Instead of standing on the sideline and sizing everyone up that we oppose with demeaning language, lets instead get involved and try and fix some things. We can if our Source and Supply is Jesus, and His attributes of love, peace and kindness towards all are reflected in all we do.
Sincerely,
Ed (that religious idiot)
