Like many of you, I’ve been wrestling with an over-abundance of information, misinformation, opinions, and group-think messages. Everywhere we turn, we are seeing and hearing, mostly from one side, interpretations and narratives we must sort through and examine. We are being forced to rethink our values, our belief systems, our capacity to love, and our willingness to conform to ideals that we probably know little about.
In the last few months I have been searching for knowledge, answers, and above all…truth. I realize not everyone will share my viewpoint. This post will be about my conclusions and may step on toes. But our toes must be already pretty sore these days. If you want to hear more…keep reading.
In my quest I first had to decide what I would choose as my source of information. Many of us are asking the same agonizing questions about the events unfolding in America, but I believe some are leaning on the wrong assumptions for absolute truths. I have had to dig deep into resources available to all of us to fact check and compare. I can no longer take information at face value, nor can I chart my own path based on opinions that don’t match the source I have chosen.
One answer to the turmoil I am seeing frequently on social media recently, is “we just need to love each other”, or “we are all brothers”. These are phrases that tickle our ears and make the solution to our current misery seem concrete and easy. Loving is only part of the call we have to do what’s right.
In fact, there is nothing easy about loving our brothers. My source, the Bible, tells me human nature is inherently emotional, selfish, greedy, and stubborn. These traits make it hard to love our neighbor in the natural. We have never been a nation, or world, filled to the brim with brotherly love, compassion, and understanding. The history of the world is littered with wars, factions, power struggles, and yes, even hatred. Disunity has been our standard.
Love? Yes, that would solve a lot of problems, but it’s not the end all answer. Why? Because it takes more than a fuzzy feeling of tolerance and benevolence to change the world. It takes a kind of love that is greater than our human capacity – a love that has the power to make monumental change. When we try to conjure up love on our own, we run into walls of hurt, anger, convictions, and a host of other emotional and mental obstacles to a love that is so inadequate. We are bombarded with images and speech that will always interfere with our desire to love – no matter how much we want it. We might succeed at loving here and there, but our state of humanity will always worm its way to the top of our priorities.
So what kind of love will do the job? How can “we” save our country from implosion? I believe the ultimate answer is to conform to the only pure source of love – the Creator’s love. Almighty God and His Son, Jesus, are the source of the kind of love that changes. It’s never-ending, perfect, and readily available for us to absorb. He is God, and we are not. He IS love, and we are not. Human love is too vulnerable to be reliable.
Pie in the sky you might say. But how has man’s plan been working so far? Do we not find ourselves right back in the same predicaments every time we think we have a handle on togetherness and unity? We have built our house on sinking sand instead of the Rock. We want to love, but our foundation is not solid because it is not supernatural. It is built from false assumptions instead of ultimate truth.
There will come a day when those who have not sought the truth will be surprised at what is revealed. There will come a day when we will wish we had looked less inside ourselves and more to heaven. God is loving, patient, and faithful. He is also just, righteous, and the ultimate gatekeeper of this nation. He will only hold back his verdict for so long. This is His show, not ours.
May we all seek absolute untainted truth from the source who cannot be moved. May we all take a stand for what is right in His eyes, and may we all find the kind of love that will move mountains.
Amen, Jan. Amen. I’m overwhelmed with the overabundance of information, too. I want to be looking up and pray for His strength to do so. Thank you for your blog.