Twitter and Facebook are blowing up with posts about all the
horrible news going on in the world right now.
It seems like finding any good news is like going on a treasure hunt
with Indiana Jones; hard to find and someone is probably going to die along the
way. But man, that Holy Grail is
something else. And every piece of good
news is something to be treasured and valued.
The Royals are in first place. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! But my heart grieves. Darkness surrounds me. I should be laughing, singing and dancing,
but I just want to hide in my room and cry.
The thought of war in Israel; children dying in Iraq; race
wars in St Louis; one of my soccer players battling bone cancer; and the one
actor who through my whole life continued to inspire me to be greater, goes and
decides to end the war of depression raging inside him. But the Royals are in first place. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so what.
And there is more going on then just these events. It seems like evil has decided that we have
been too complacent and we need to be challenged more. “Is this not enough? Do we really need to face more than this?”
So we in turn respond on our favorite social media sites
with the proper amount of outrage to inform all of our followers that we have
chosen the right side of the struggle. All
of us have our say, and join our voices with the popular opinion of the
moment. We puff up and show our support
so that all of our followers know where we stand and how our hearts are in
despair. We use our outrage to posture
ourselves into deliverers of truth and justice, heralds of the correct order of
life. And depending on the responses we
can then decide if we need to post more propaganda, or just begin un-friending
the unbelievers.
Now, before you go and un-friend me for being arrogant and
condescending; let me finish my short dialogue here to explain my position. Take
a look with me first at the word outrage and let’s explore what it means. This definition is from Dictionary.com.
outrage
n
1. a wantonly vicious or cruel act
2. a gross violation of decency, morality, honour, etc
3. profound indignation, anger, or hurt, caused by such an act
vb (tr)
4. to cause profound indignation, anger, or resentment in
5. to offend grossly (feelings, decency, human dignity, etc)
6. to commit an act of wanton viciousness, cruelty, or indecency on
7. a euphemistic word for rape1
[C13
(meaning: excess): via French from outré beyond, from Latin ultrā]
outrage - The true etymology of outrage has nothing to do with out or rage—rather, it is a borrowing from French outrage, "insult, outrage," based on Latin ultra, "beyond," and -agium, a noun suffix; outrage first meant "lack of
moderation."
I like the original meaning of the word, “Lack of
moderation.” Another early translation I
saw said it was defined in French and Latin as “beyond the reasonable
measure.” And so I believe we need to
think about our outrage in that sense.
Are we going beyond reasonable measure?
Do we lack moderation in our response?
And if so, then what good are we doing the situation. Yes we need to be offended when evil strikes
us. Yes, we need to defend the innocent
and stand in the darkness with torches and shine grace, love and light.
But what really is going on with all the outrage we read
about on Twitter and Facebook? Is it us
standing against evil, or are we posturing so that others will think more kindly
of us?
Genocide is a topic we cannot take lightly. The mass execution of a group of people based
on ethnicity or religion is a horror that should grieve all of us. To go to the point of inflicting this
destruction on innocent children is as ugly as one can get on the
sin-O-meter. My heart is torn more by
violence against children than any other atrocity I have seen or heard of. If you want to see me turn into the Hulk,
than hurt one of my kids. I will show
you a rage that would make the devil shudder.
When I see the outrage on social media regarding the
situation in Iraq
I become quite concerned. Wars have been
going on for thousands of years.
Children have been used and abused by men in their quest for blood and
glory throughout that entire time. But is
my concerned focused on the truth of the events happening and the actual people
that are in the midst of those situations and their well-being; or am I using
social media gossip to allow me to posture with a stance of justice and call
for the other side to be murdered?
I don’t want Christians to die at the hands of Muslims. I don’t want Jews to die at the hands of
Muslims. But I also do not want Muslims
to die at the hands of Christians and Jews.
We have to get beyond the posturing and find the truth of who we all are
and learn to live in community with one another. There is a way to peace; but my post on
Facebook about killing terrorists is not a part of that way. The one I follow, would never use social
media that way, so why should I?
Robin Williams has always been one of my favorite actors. I first saw him in “Mork and Mindy” and I
have seen almost every movie he has made since then. His movies “Hook” and “Dead Poets Society” are absolute must sees in my
book. Great truths about humanity can be
found in them, and Robin delivers it perfectly.
Suicide is not something I take lightly. I first experienced it in elementary school
when a friend of mine tried to hang himself in the bathroom and I was one of
the kids who found him. I then met a
great musician back in 1992 and had numerous conversations with him about life,
music and grace until he took his own life just before the Christmas of
1993. And I currently have learned a lot
about the subject of suicide from someone close to me who has battled
depression and suicide most of their own life.
But before I way in with my opinion on Robin’s life, his
work, and his battles, I want to know the truth. I want to know about the demons in his head
and what they were saying. I want to
know about the nightmares and the fears that locked him up. I want to know about his family and what they
feared; what they dreaded every-time there was any silence from Robin. Because, until I know all of that, I can be shocked and disappointed, but I can’t be beyond reason and
measure for any good purpose.
And this plays into how we are treating those around
us. Are we really listening to those
people closest to us? Do we really know
what is going on inside them? Or do we
judge their moods and call them selfish and immature? It’s great to post about suicide and
depression, but what is the purpose of these posts?
I have battled bouts of depression in my life. And a kick in the pants, or the ability to
pull myself up by my bootstraps was not going to get me through. Sunday school answers don’t work all the
time, and sometimes they cause more harm then good. But standing with someone, holding onto them,
and loving them because of their weaknesses, brokenness, and beauty always does
good. Sunday school questions are meant to lead us to Jesus, not some magic formula.
Racism is also not something I take lightly. I know that I fight my own prejudices. I will admit it. I see a large group of black men downtown and
I still get nervous. I buy into the lie
that they want to harm me. It’s one of
the stereotypes that we teach each other in our society that cause us to
fear. We thrive on fear. It raises us up and puts others down. We measure ourselves against others to prove
that we really are something of value.
And only if the flower next to us can be judged to be a nasty weed, do
we actually feel like the beautiful rose we were created to be.
I know that in Ferguson Missouri
So the question that comes up in my head every time I read
another Twitter or Facebook post is this: why is this person saying this? What is the point they are trying to
make? I don’t mean to be
judgmental. Honestly I can’t help
it. It is a part of my broken
nature. It is a part of me that needs to
be fixed. I want to move beyond being
critical and find grace in everything.
So that now leads us to Josh.
My son Gabe’s favorite song right now is “You Raised Me Up”,
as sung by Josh Groban. He plays it
constantly. He sings it all the
time. We could be in the middle of the
grocery store and all of a sudden, Gabe looks to the sky, raises his arm and
starts serenading the lady stacking the cucumbers with, “you raise me up, so I
can stand on mountains, you raise me up, to walk on stormy seas, I am strong,
cause I am on your shoulders, you raise me up, to more than I can be.” And yes, I am not sorry that song will be
stuck in your head for the next 24 hours.
Welcome to my world baby.
But, in spite of the weird looks that Gabe gets from the
veggie lady and his sister, he has something right. Gabe is seeking out the good in others that
is inspiring him to be better. He is
finding the grace in our world and using that to build community. In a sense he is calling for all of us to rise up and
love one another. Gabe is doing what
Jesus would do. He is looking past the
brokenness and pain and simply listening to their story, loving them and letting them love him for his story. That’s it, nothing more, nothing less.
If you need to un-friend me, I understand. I know the real me, its okay, I really
understand.
When I read the hundreds of posts and tweets out there my response is to challenge the outrage. Mostly I want to challenge myself and my own outrage because of the impostor in me I fight everyday of my life. It's me trying to get the whole log and speck thing right. So when I post something on social media am I
posturing or am I seeking truth? One
will bring more violence, and one will bring grace. One will bring division, and one will bring
community. One is beyond reasonable
measure, and one is fantastic.
I truly believe that we can be fantastic.
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