Righteous Indignation

How do you change the world?  One world at a time.  Even if that world is your own.  A single drop in a lake still makes ripples.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday my cousin let me read a letter that she wrote after a particularly stressful day at work.  She described the piece as simply venting but it was much more than that.  Only a few people have read it but those people shared the same sentiment.  I’m not in the same profession so I can’t empathize completely but I still felt her heart.  She was venting, yes, but it wasn’t an angry vent of a disgruntled employee.  It was a cry of frustration from a professional suffering in a broken system.  As I read the letter I felt the need to do something about it.  This wasn’t just her problem, or the plight of those in her profession, it is America’s problem.

After reading the letter I felt compelled to do something.  I recently learned that the word compassion has action attached to it.  If it doesn’t move you to do something, then you do not have compassion.  Just like the church should take action on loving our neighbor, caring for the poor etc., we are compelled as citizens to take action when we recognize injustices in our society and our government.  But how?  Simply do what you can when you can.  Pay attention.  Read.  Vote.  That’s all.  It’s just that simple.

Jesse Duplantis recently spoke at my church.  He said quite a few things that got my heart beating and my mind spinning.  He talked about the tower of Babel in a way that I’ve never heard before.  Of all the archaeological evidence supporting biblical events, they have yet to find the remains of the tower of Babel.  Why?  Because it was never built.  Most people envision that story as a group of men and a half built tower when God decided to scatter their speech.  (Genesis 11:1-9)  That’s not the case at all.  The tower was only a concept in their minds.  The men were in such unity in their minds and hearts that God Himself recognized that the tower was as good as built.  As Jesse put it, if this group of heathens could get God’s attention, how much more could His children get His attention?  If only we could get unified for a righteous cause.  If God be for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)

My point is this, there is power in unity.  In general, people are afraid to speak up because they think they are alone in their beliefs and/or because they are afraid of loosing.  Loosing a job, a position of power, money, or even his/her life.  All of which are temporal anyway.  So we allow ourselves to be oppressed into loathing a profession we once loved and become slaves to the system.  We’re dying as a society and we only have ourselves to blame.  There’s the popular thought that “your vote doesn’t actually count.”  True or not, the only sure fire way for your vote not to count is to not cast it.  Personally, I believe that propaganda was started by people that don’t want you to vote so they can continue carrying out their megalomaniacal plans without opposition.  I’m sure this voting bamboozelment comes from the same alliance that started the lie that sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never hurt you.  Don’t believe that lie and stop telling it to your children!  Words can kill you!  But that’s another blog for another time.  Stay tuned.

Don’t be afraid to speak up because chances are you are not alone in your views.  Have you ever sat in a class and the instructor encouraged questions?  They say something like, “don’t be afraid to ask a question because someone else may need to hear the answer too.”  That concept spreads beyond the classroom.  Don’t be afraid to speak-up because someone else believes it’s wrong too.  Someone else is suffering too.  It’s time for us to get angry with a righteous anger.  It’s time for us to get angry enough to fight.  Fight for change.  Angry enough to spit.  Spit in the face of fear.  Angry enough to yell.  Yell out truth and refuse to be silenced.