.
I realize that that we must, especially now, be prophetic, vigorous, and unrelenting in calling out injustice, collective sin, and corruption in the arena of the body politic. That is a responsibility of citizenship. However, it does not have to drive how we treat our neighbors.
We must be critical when evaluating our leaders in thought and in government.
However, we can be critical without being unkind.
Or can we?
What if we simply had a self-imposed moratorium on saying anything unkind to or about anyone or any group of people?
What if we tried it for a week or a month?
What if, when tempted to harshly criticize a group or a person, we looked for seeds of that same fault in ourselves and started working on it?
What if, when feeling the need to talk about temptation and sin, we used our own struggles as the illustration of how God can help us overcome?
What if we were willing to take the worst seat, be slighted, spend and be spent, and practice all the other calls to simple, humble, gracious living that Jesus and the apostles taught?
What if we simply decided not to take offense and not to seek retaliation in any form ... for a season? Maybe a month? A year?
I think it might work so well for us and the peace that it brought to our hearts might be so compelling that we might decide to extend those times until it became a lifetime lifestyle?
And what if, when we saw a brother or sister on a path of self-destruction, we refrained from discussing that with anyone else, but took first steps to go to that person and offer our help out of the trap?
What if?
What if we tried it in our speech and then, in our actions and decisions?
What if?
I think we could render lots of discussions and debates moot and find that lots of logjams would simply break loose and let the water flow.
