Have We Forsaken Humanity?

This post is about a topic I've been rolling around for the last week or so. I hope my thoughts and words come across clearly. Understanding and love are the backbone of my message. I never want to seem as though I'm judging or condemning anyone for their faults. As I was getting ready for work last week, I began thinking of someone I used to be close with and how I had not spoken with him in quite some time. He and I attended church together for a few years until I decided one day to leave the church. This person and I were never "best friends" but we were friends and spoke regularly. It dawned on me that I had not spoken with him in awhile and I wondered why. I had left this specific church and honestly didn't want to associate myself with people from that church, partially because I felt ashamed for the way things went down on my departure. I wondered if when I departed the church I had hurt him or others in the process. The possibility that people had been hurt emotionally by my actions came crashing down on my heart in an instant. I quickly repented and began thinking of other people in my life I had lost contact with throughout the years. Was this an issue with me personally or was there a larger issue running loose in society and inside the church that had somehow managed to distort my view of humanity. I see this issue spread out amongst churches I used to visit. I spent time helping out with worship at various churches around my city some time ago. The common theme in almost every church I went was that of betrayal. I would see various people I knew from other churches in my past and would be informed "discreetly" about the issues they experienced at other churches around town. I would mention "I was just visiting this church and saw Jimmy." Their response sounded something like "Oh, Jimmy and I don't really get along. It's a long story. He did something to hurt me." Then I would have the unfortunate pleasure of hearing the long story. I am not trying to say that people don't get hurt. It's an unfortunate reality associated with being alive that at some point in your life someone will hurt you; a friend, family member, or a perfect stranger. I'm not saying it's unrealistic to be hurt and offended. I just wonder if we are too slow to forgive and too quick to discard people from our lives. I know this is not simply an issue with the church. Everyday fathers and mothers discard their children. They throw them away to the broken school system, to the adoption agency, to the orphanage, to the gang. They abandon their children, creating generations of hurt and broken individuals. I understand that society in general tends to not value the life of an individual. I just think if there's one place in all the world for people to be forgiven, accepted, loved, cared for, encouraged, and set free, that place should always and undoubtedly be the church. I understand we live in a broken world filled with sin and no one is perfect, not even those inside of the church. I don't think we genuinely value humanity. We can be friends with someone for years experiencing the good times along the path of life, yet one error in judgment from your friend can cause you to never speak with them again, to harbor un-forgiveness, resentment, and anger. There is a grieving process that we'll experience after a wound from a friend has been handed out. It's important to understand this is a process and not a permanent way of life. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." Says Matthew 5:4 we will mourn the wound from a friend. We will also be comforted when the mourning is over. Being hurt was always meant to be a process and not a way of life, no matter what the offense. A process that leads to freedom, forgiveness, and restitution focused in love. Is it logical to believe not every friend will be a best friend? Yes. Is it logical to believe that people will grow apart and people will change and separate? Yes. I don't believe there is anything wrong with that being the case. I'll use something that happened to me today as an example. I was in the grocery store doing some shopping. I saw someone I attended church with once. Actually I attended church with this person twice at two different churches. The last I spoke with this person everything was fine. I left the second church we attended together because I wasn't ready to reenter church and this person left shortly after for their own reasons. I actually talked to the person after both of us left the church. Things did not end badly on either side. But when I saw this person in the store they did a 180 degree turn after seeing me and avoided me. I was actually happy to see them until I realized what they had done in avoiding me. Am I hurt by this action? No. I just thought it was interesting and a little funny. I've seen someone in the mall before that I, at one time, despised, yet I still made a conscious effort to say hello to that person and take an interest in their life. Forgiveness can be difficult, especially when the wound has dug its roots deep within. Look at Peter, one of the most offensive men in the bible. "Then Peter came up to Him and said, Lord, how many times may my brother sin against me and I forgive him and let it go? [As many as] up to seven times? Jesus answered him, I tell you, not up to seven times, but seventy times seven!" (Matthew 18:21, 22 AMP) There is no magical number when we can stop forgiving people, we should always forgive those that have caused us hurt and then move forward to restoring that relationship in a healthy way. Let's take a boyfriend and girlfriend that were having sex outside of marriage for example. Their relationship takes its share of twists and turns and they end their relationship in ugly sorts. Over time they both decide to apologize and forgive one another. I'm not saying they need to restore their impure sexual relationship. They should, however, restore their relationship to some form of loving friendship. A husband and wife split up because the husband was abusive. Over time, when the wife has forgiven her husband she should not reenter that same abusive relationship. Forgiving someone does not mean you accept their abuse and attacks on your life. It means you forgive the wounds inside them that caused that individual to hurt you in the first place. So am I saying that we need to connect with abusive people in our lives for fear of throwing them away? No. If they are still attacking your life that is a completely different story. You should love them and pray for their healing and redemption, but you do not have to submit to their abuse. Almost everything I've talked about in this post, and in all my posts, is issues I've handled in my own life or have happened to close friends. I am not trying to judge anyone or point the finger of blame. I just cannot help but gasp at how society and the church place such little value on humanity, especially on so called "friends". Will this world ever be perfect? No, it will not. By loving and valuing humanity will you change the entire world yourself? No, you will not. But that doesn't give you any excuse for not attempting to make a change. You must be the change you want to see in the world. It doesn't matter if you infect one person's life or one million, with the love of Jesus. Go through your cell phone, your Facebook, your Twitter accounts. Find an old friend, someone you haven't spoken to in a while. Call them and talk with them, express interest in their life and share love with them. Begin to value people you encounter in life. When you watch the news and see someone was murdered, stop and say a prayer for their family. Give money and food to the next homeless person you see on the streets. Buy coffee for the person behind you at Starbucks. Hold the door open for someone at the store. Volunteer your time at the local shelter. It's time we get back to viewing each and every person as Jesus. I'll leave you with one of my favorite passages of scripture. "For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you brought Me together with yourselves and welcomed and entertained and lodged Me, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me with help and ministering care, I was in prison and you came to see Me. Then the just and upright will answer Him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger and welcomed and entertained You, or naked and clothed You? And when did we see You sick or in prison and came to visit You? And the King will reply to them, 'Truly I tell you, in so far as you did it for one of the least [in the estimation of men] of these my brethren, you did it for Me." (Matthew 25:35-40 AMP)