AGOOEYMESS

It's been an interesting couple weeks. I feel like i've been surrounded by dirty things, things that are hard to scrub off, arrogance, bitterness, compassionless people.

A friend of mine once told me i just like to argue. maybe that is the case. I seem to be good at it a lot of the time. but maybe it is that i just like to stick up for the other side, often i'll take the opposing side in a debate even though i understand what the person i am debating with is saying. i try to wrap my mind around whatever i can. and usually i can find i can relate in some way or another, or at least try to put myself in someone elses shoes a bit.

This week i got to listen to someone tell me about kids that play basketball in the street, on a dead end street. how terrible they are because they dont move right away and use foul language, and above and beyond, that these kids parents (even though it is unknown who they are) are bad parents and bad people.

now i'm going to estimate 6 kids here, and lets say all of them are from single parent homes, so lets say 6 parents. without any actual knowledge of the parents. and no more knowledge of the kids than they play basketball in the street, and dont move quick enough when a car is coming, and use foul language, 12 people were written off completely, bad people, people that are somehow less.

a step further, i heard someone speak ill of the poor, because they are abusing free cell phones for emergency situations.

a step further, i heard someone continually bash a political party that was opposite of the party they "belong" to. writing off an entire group of people as, stupid, bad people, heartless, and many other negative words.

Negative words make me sad. i think they are infectious. poisonous. i think that they some how speckle us, and if used often enough they envelop us and destroy the good words.

it is nothing less than arrogant to lower a group of people to a state that is less than. the fact of the matter is i am the one who plays basketball in the street (and so are you), i am the poor person (and so are you), i am the person with different political viewpoints (and so are you). at some point in my life and in some point in your life, we've been on the "other side". we've been the ones crying for mercy instead of justice. we've been the ones that have acted foolish, we've been the ones that have behaved selfishly.

i've often heard the term, bleeding heart (i am not associating it with a political party, even though that is where i believe it is mainly heard. i dont stand firm with either party), but what better thing could there be than a bleeding heart. compassion is moving.

if we fought fire with fire we would watch the whole world burn.

if we do nothing but hate, we become hate, and just find new reasons to hate.

i dont think we were ever meant for it. i dont think that we were ever meant for those things.

maybe i'm an idealist. maybe. but then again, if nothing means anything, why would we even be able to have ideals in the first place?

i think that's why i am so drawn to Christ. who he was really resonates in me.

to take a woman who was condemned and say no shes not

to get angry with arrogance

to appreciate those who are considered less than

to be compassionate in the face of persecution.

to be accepting of what life brings.

i cant help but thinking He was patient with the people He was dealing with, as like dealing with children. and i also cant help but thinking....

the people we run in to that "aggravate" us, what if we were patient with them, like we would be patient with our own children.

what if we were patient with the kids playing basketball in the street. what if we hoped for them instead of condemn them

what if we understood the poor, gave to them, not because they are less, but because we are equals and we know we would hope someone would help us in desperate times

what if we sought common ground in political parties, instead of exasperating the differences.

maybe i'm just an idealist

maybe i just like to argue

maybe i'm just an under dog fighting for whats right

maybe i just want to shower the speckles off

or maybe i'm just not busy at work today