* circles

Once upon a time, there was a circle. Not all that different than a lot of other circles. Slowly rotating. Most of the circles turned about the same speed, looked the same and seemed to have the same types of people on board them. But there were some differences. From some of the circles, there were sounds of laughter. Others, sounds of crying. But for most, it was just regular conversation. Sometimes some heated voices. Other times words of kindness.

But there was a difference. Because from some of the circles there were words of disdain, condescending and belittling words. By just a few, but they were there. And while in some circles, most actually, when these words were spoken others spoke up to quiet these types of words, saying discussions, even heated ones can happen without them. However, in some circles, there were those who seemed to have a “survival of the fittest” concept of how a circle should be, almost Darwinian. And so while there were soft words spoken to encourage those speaking belittling words to find other ones to share, instead, there were also things shared by those surprised, even hurt by these sharp responses. When they expressed surprise about it they were told anything from “just ignore it and move on” to “if you can’t take it just go elsewhere.” These were said, again by just a few, in many cases the same ones actually. And so some did go elsewhere. Which didn’t seem to bother the vast majority of that circle at all. Though there were a few who spoke up.

One day a wise man came and looked at the circles, observing them silently for some time. Watching and listening closely.

In the end, he asked another who was also carefully observing it all:
“I’m told some of these circles are made up of Christian?”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“What distinguishes them one from another then?” asked the wise man.
“I wish I knew,” said the other. “See that one where people are being made fun of? Told to take it or leave it? They call themselves Christians.”

We can do better, people.

In fact, we’ve been taught to do better because we’re called to do better. It’s a Jesus thing.

[this in response to a “Christian” Facebook group where a few members came close to being abusive in their posts to those they disagreed with–while almost everyone else just looked on]