Dear Diary

I was walking along, minding my own business, when all of a sudden something caught my eye that seemed out of place.  Indeed it was something that was out of place.  It was some sort of binder that had gotten left behind by someone.  Forgetting that I had been minding my own business I began investigating the object.


The outside was covered with doodles and band names and such.  There were little flowers and puppy dogs and the like drawn randomly around.  It seemed pretty obvious that this belonged to a teenage girl.  Upon holding the item, it appeared to be extra heavy to one side.  Feeling around it seemed like a small book size.  I was thinking maybe something like an ipad; something of value.  I probably needed to find if there was some sort of lost and found nearby, or some sort of official place for this to go.  Curiosity got the best of me though and I thought I had better look inside to confirm my suspicions and see if there was any sort of identification that would reconnect this lost item with its owner. 


I unzipped the zipper and opened up the binder thing.  Sitting there staring at me was a little red book with silver edged pages titled with big bold letters....  My Life. 


Ok, so what would you do?  Of course I totally abandon the "minding my own business" and opened up the book and found myself reading the diary of a teenage girl.  For some reason I felt a little giddy about the possible entertainment I might come across.  Stories of puppy love?  Perhaps a little juicy gossip about a cheerleader?  Or how boring the history teacher was?  That is not what I found.


On the first page I opened to, I began reading about a friend of this girl...  how she had been bullied by others in the school...  how she had committed suicide because of the bullying.   I began reading about the pain and confusion of this girl trying to figure out why bullies could be so mean to drive someone to kill themselves.  I read of the loneliness and emptiness this girl felt by her friends absence, and the anger at those who could not leave her friend alone. 


I closed the book.  I could not read any more.  I cursed myself for having let my curiosity get the best of me, and cursed the bullies who could cause so much hurt to others.  I said a silent prayer for the girl who wrote out her feelings there, never expecting that anyone besides herself would ever read those words. 


It hit me hard too because I could relate to this story.  I was once a victim of bullies, and their relentless attacks.  It ruined my middle school years all the way until late my sophomore year.  I hated going to school to have to face it every day.  No one seemed to understand.  No one was there to support me.  Day after day, the jokes, the pranks, the physical abuse....  I did not think it would ever end.  That is where that girl was who committed suicide. 


I wish for her that someone had known.  If there had been someone who would have helped her through, helped her to feel loved, helped her to feel she was not alone.  Did her parents know?  Or did they just seem to pile on top of it?  Did her friends know?  Or did they just seem dismissive?  Did anyone try to share the love of Christ with her?  For me those were all no's as I went through my own private hell.  She could not take it anymore and snapped, ending her life.  I snapped too, but lashed out on the bully.


We need to watch out for others.  We never know what a person is going through.  We will never know if a kind word or gesture in a given moment could be a life saver.  We never know if showing and sharing the love of Jesus might at a moment be preventing another suicide.  If you see bullying say something.  Don't be afraid to step up and defend the person being bullied.  It is never cool to call people names, or belittle them, or abuse them in any way.  It is evil. 


Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. 
Love others in the same way Christ loved us, putting them first, and ourselves last.
Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, only that which will lift others up.
Don't be selfish.  If someone has a need, meet it if you can.  If they are hungry, feed them.  Thirsty? Give them a drink.  Need clothes?  give and share. 
Love is patient, kind.  It is not jealous.  It does not boast of self, or brag.  It does not act badly, nor is it selfish.  It is not easily provoked.  Love thinks no evil nor has fun in doing wrong, but instead rejoices in truth.  It bears all, believes all, hopes all, endures all.  Love never fails.
Those are all scriptures and are bully beaters.  Do good to those who use and abuse you.  Let God take your vengeance, for it is His.  Pray for the bullies.


How is that possible?  You don't know what they have done to me?  Maybe not, but there is one who does.  His name is Jesus.  He was bullied, beaten, abused, mocked, made fun of, and chased away.  And He was God.  He could have at any time called down legions of angels to stop others.  He did not though.  He still loved those who hated him without a cause.  Jesus had done no wrong to anyone, but was hated so much he was put to death.  He did this to save you.  He knows just what you are going through.  Believe on Him and you will be saved.  Trust in Him and He will enable you, through His spirit, to be able to be obedient to loving your enemies and doing good to those who persecute you.  And you have His promise that you will never be alone for He will never leave you nor forsake you.
 

Poverty and Politics

I wanted to take a minute to examine this picture I have seen going around.  This is nothing against the person who posted it or of those for who this may be true.  It is an examination of how this argument is often used.

Something like this is often brought up in response to a conservative talking about reforming the program or cutting the budget.  The intent is often to paint anyone who is for reform of the program as mean spirited cruel bigoted individuals who want people to starve and making grandma choose between having electricity or eating dog food. This statement is just as bigoted as it claims the other side is.

This argument is also used to stamp down and mute out the truth about the massive fraud and abuse that IS in the program. Because someone points out that truth is not them calling every individual on food stamps names or stereotyping them.  It is people who wish to truly help the people who need help and don’t like that help being abused by those who do not need it.  We are not going to be able to help anybody if we keep going further into debt, in part, because the conditions are made to force people onto a program and then secondly that the program is not policed to prevent the fraud and abuse from occurring. 

Maybe it is not popular to stand up to this sort of message, but it is the truth.  What we need to do is set the conditions for people to get off of food stamps by having jobs.  By more people having jobs, we will have a larger tax base to help those who are still in need.  We need to balance the budget and pay off the debt.  If we keep borrowing we will go bankrupt and won’t be able to help anybody.   We need to stop giving away money we don’t have to people who don’t like us and use that to help our own.  We need to begin teaching biblical morality to our children so that people will be a little more responsible as adults and there won’t be such a high crime rate that keeps jobs away from the cities and poorer areas.

Those things are not bigoted statements or stereotyping.  They are reality.  Until people began grasping those realities and implementing them, we will go bankrupt and everyone will be stealing from their neighbor just to survive.  Instead we stereotype those people as being bigoted and accuse them of stereotyping the poor.  There is not much time left before this house of cards falls down and there will not be any assistance or opportunity for success for anyone.