Sunday Inspiration: “Don’t be a jerk!”
“Jerks” seem to be coming out of the woodwork lately. I’ve lost count of all the men who have been busted for sexually harassing women, and we all know there are many more who have not been called to account. Then we have those who condemn others for their race, religion, politics or sexual preferences. And those who feel free to use social media as a cowardly way to attack others.
Then there’s us. Getting angry at people who don’t deserve it, and even sometimes people who do. Feeling free to criticize others for choices they’ve made without understanding why. Feeling superior to someone who started their personal fifty-yard-dash through life ten seconds after we did. Feeling smarter than someone who is not a native speaker of our language. (I particularly pay attention to that one, since I’m always aware I only speak one language and that person speaks at least two.)
Sometimes my jerk meter goes crazy, and sadly sometimes it goes crazy when it’s pointing at me.
John Pavlovitz is a favorite blogger of mine, and his recent post, Life is short. People are hurting. Don’t be a jerk. resonated with me. I encourage you to read the entire blog, in fact please read it and then sign up to get his others, too. You won’t be sorry. But these words are at the heart of his message:
John makes me wonder if we talk too much about love and kindness and compassion and need to lower our expectations and just don’t be a jerk. Don’t hurt people. Don’t attack people. Don’t ignore people. Don’t cause pain of any kind to anyone. It’s that simple, isn’t it?
I can’t say it any better than John:
A simple yet powerful message that the world needs to listen to. Great post, Emilie!
I can only say, I agree. I am trying hard to find sites on the internet that feel safe and kind.
I think this is very appropriate for what is going on in the world today. I think we are becoming a very cynical society and we are condemning people before we have all the facts.
The point of our sermon in church this morning is that we are all family. Therefore treat everyone as you would your immediate family–in other words don’t be a jerk. My mother always preached, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Too bad we don’t all live by that.
Amen
Thanks Emilie …..the shared article from your link was a great reminder of humanistic values that we all should try to follow and sometimes need reminders to keep following.
He is absolutely right. It comes back to the fact that we haven’t walked in someone else’s shoes.
Thanks for sharing.
A very simple, yet powerful post, it really is at the heart of what I pray for every morning, that we can all learn to just get along, we don’t have to always agree with one another(I feel we can definitely learn from differences of opinion), but we don’t have to be hateful or ugly to one another. Thank you for sharing this insightful blog!