I haven’t written anything in a while not for lack of desire, but from fear. Over the past month my Facebook feed, probably like yours, looked sort of like the Confederacy was going to war with a rainbow. Everyone had an opinion on this and everyone had an opinion on that. Everyone felt the need to voice those opinions on social media. I got to the point where I just refused to read articles online unless they were related to food or outer space. While, yes, I have an opinion, I decided to not write about it. I’ve developed this fear of adding to the noise. I’m fearful of coming across as an ill-informed idiot.
The wisdom from Proverbs has continually come to mind. “Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is considered prudent.” (Proverbs 17:28) Perhaps I’m the fool of which the book speaks. So I’ve done a lot of thinking. We jump onto movements and bandwagons in an effort to feel like we’re doing something meaningful without having to do much at all. A flag came down, people cheered, but racism didn’t cease to exist. Anyone can legally marry anyone that he/she wishes, yet there’s still a lack of love in our world. On the other hand, as far as I know, the ground didn’t open up and swallow anyone whole either. It rarely does.
An innocent white woman is murdered by an illegal alien because she came to the wrong place at the wrong time. An innocent black man is gunned down because his appearance was deemed a threat. Christians are burned alive, beheaded, and locked in cages and drowned because they won’t bow to a terrorist group. Children all over the world starve to death each day and organs of unborn babies are harvested. Grave injustices that never make it across our news feeds occur regularly. If we’re not careful, we won’t feel it. We’ll go on about our days yelling at traffic and complaining about slow internet service.
That’s our punishment. The consequence of our sin is a slow burn and we won’t realize that we’re consumed until there’s nothing left. We’re aware of the suffering around us, but as our hearts harden, we convince ourselves that there’s nothing that we can do to alleviate it. So we join a movement, post on Facebook, pat our backs and call it a day.
