Grace (Our Humanity)

I wrote this yesterday in my journal. I was sitting at my favorite overlook on the Blue Ridge Highway looking over the Appalachian mountains. I was reminded of how lucky I am to live somewhere so beautiful. This was a tough write but I wanted to speak on some of the issues we are dealing with.

Something we dismiss far too often. As humans we have been given gifts. Things such as our humanity and grace. Like love, grace is something derived from God himself. Given to us humans to help us co-exist with one another. It’s also something we have lost sight of. The circumstances of this year opened my eyes up to an opportunity for the entirety of humanity to unite.

I cannot simply support this system for I see the division it purposely causes. I see the hearts of men. Material men. Men focused on the understanding that they make the rules, they make the money and decide who gets a part. They decide who stays in power, not the people. Democracy? They have the nerve to call this a Democracy? The people have lost their voice in this so called “democracy”. We have lost the right to be called a Democracy, for now we are an empire. With the goal to simply stay on top and crush the weak. Conquer, conquer, conquer. Take, take, take. As we have recently seen the only time the people have a voice is when they come together. For then the government can no longer ignore them if they wish to keep their popularity. It took the people to actually take up arms against the government to incite real change. This has shown the true colors of the government, and history has also shown this plenty of times. But their goal remains: to keep themselves in power. For their “power” comes from the justification of ignorant men and women. People who have forgotten the term “WE THE PEOPLE”. The people have the power, not the government. Thomas Jefferson once said “when governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, it becomes tyranny.” Now Thomas Jefferson was not the greatest man but he feared one thing: the government controlling the people. Because he knew if that ever happened everything we fought for would become pointless. What we are seeing today and have been for the last one hundred years is that exact thing. Government control.

Like many others my life has been consumed by this idea that my worth is measured by political philosophy. My generation will change this world, that is something I know as an absolute fact. My fear is that we are not armed with the right mindset in order to actually cause real change. We have to understand that this world is lost. We have decided to focus more on political people and their values instead of our basic human characteristics. We sacrifice our own beliefs and betray them for a side in this political tango. Simply to fit the status quo. Something that has been difficult for my generation to do is dismiss the idea that political values categorize us as a person. That our worth is simply measured by our political knowledge/stance. Further dividing us as people. The last time we saw this much division in our country we broke out into a full blown civil war. Thankfully we had a man like President Lincoln to fight against that division. Even he knew that “a house dived against itself can not stand”. I now know that he did the best with the opportunities he had. We hold Lincoln at such a high standard (which we should) and yet we cannot even follow his teachings.

Something that hurts me very much is that we have dismissed each other for so long. We have closed conversation about hard things because we are brainwashed with idea to think less of a person because of their sexuality, race, religion, or political affiliation. I learned this years ago but my own fear kept me from speaking up. But God has shown me recently that I must use the gifts He has given me to fight for His people. He’s been preparing me over the last year and a half for exactly this. Almost three hundred pages written in my own hand preparing me to speak on what I believe. Keeping me in His book to show me who His son is and an unmatched type of love and gentleness. Helping me recognize the struggle of my fellow people and giving me the heart to try and help.

The fact of the matter is we have pulled our morals out of the equation entirely. Thus losing our basic standards of humanity in the process. Our compassion replaced with competitiveness, our grace replaced with greed, and our love replaced with lies. Leaving us with what? The only set of values left over are political. Our worth is not measured by our political affiliations. Because to the people in power we are simply another vote. Nothing more and nothing less. We keep them in power because of our ignorance, allowing them to play God. We have allowed this to happen. I have allowed this to happen. We can no longer do that, and I know now that I have to be at the front of this fight. Because my actions will speak much louder than these words printed on a page.

That is what Beyond the Fishbowl is about. It’s about all of us recognizing that we need open conversation. No matter our race, religion, culture, or our political views. We need to restore our humanity and recognize each other as brothers and sisters. We need voices. We need to educate ourselves and open ourselves to learning about each other. We must have grace. This doesn’t mean we must agree on everything or chose to follow another way of thinking. I encourage everyone to open up their hearts to each other. No matter their beliefs or race. Just open your heart to hear what they have to say. We can learn so much from one another. And in the process open our minds up to being more accepting. It’s time we reminded ourselves why we are actually here.

P.S. I appreciate everyone for taking the time to read this. Next post I’m going to speak on my ideas on how to fix the system. For the record these are of course my own thoughts and beliefs stemming from my own research. I’m not asking for anyone to agree with me and I’m not intending to push my beliefs on anyone reading this. More than anything I am open to conversation and would love to talk to anyone. Thank you again for your time!