I also contemplated whether to spell straight or strait. straight can mean without bend, but strait can mean narrow, strict or constricted. Sometimes I contemplate too much for my own damn good. I always have, I think. Lately I have been thinking about right and wrong, good and bad, sin and righteousness, and just trying to get along with a world that has a much different set of values then I do. Doesn’t my Creator want me to love everybody? That is a very hard question right there, because quite frankly, I don’t. There, I said it. I will return to this statement in a moment, but for now I want to segue into something that will hopefully cast some light on this kind of love.

Right vs Wrong….

I think right is always right. What does that mean? I mean right plus anything else equals wrong. “Why do you have to be such a hard ass?” There is a proverb that goes something like this…. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I think it’s paved with a lot of bad intentions as well. Let’s say it like this…. Right is a straight line, focused on a target. If I waver in any direction, I will not hit the target. If right is a road, that road is straight. If I, at any point on that road, decide to take a detour, I am no longer on that road. “But it’s a nice detour, and we’re doing a lot of good here. I’m not far off the road and I know what I’m doing”…. Most of my mistakes seemed proper at the time. Why did I say proper, and not right?

I think wrong is always wrong. One of the most frightening places you will ever find yourself is in what some folks like to call gray areas. I hate gray areas. Many a good man has fallen in these areas, never to raise again to their former station. Wrong knows things right never thinks about. Wrong knows that, although it would love to lure right to its side, it is in no way necessary. “Why can’t you understand my point of view? Don’t we both want what’s best?” So right does the unthinkable, he compromises with wrong. Just around the edges though, nothing in a big way. And the old edges disappear. And so it goes. New edges, new compromises, and right is unaware of his fall. Not yet anyway. Wrong, on the other hand, has grown much stronger, and much more demanding.

So, let’s circle back to the question of hate. There is a thing that good people say that I agree with, but I don’t think we mean it in the same way. Hate the sin, love the Sinner. I believe that we are commanded to love one another, but we are not commanded to enable one another to do wrong things. What you tolerate today, you embrace tomorrow. There are those who will take all you have to offer, drag you down, and walk away. You aren’t doing them, or yourself any good. I don’t love that sort of person. I also don’t hate them either, I actually wish them well. They may even be among those I pray for regularly. And the critical thing is that whether we, as fellow humans, love each other or not, we must find a way to co-exist.

How then do we co-exist?

Well, let’s look at a story about co-existence….

First though, there are some who are quite religious, that believe you have to read your Bible, or your salvation is called into question. I’m not in that tribe of believers. There are many fine people out there that read every day, and there are some pretty questionable characters out there that read their Bible everyday also. Our Creator knows who His are, and they are quite safe I believe. The Bible is many things to many people, and one of the things it is to me is an illustration of how to deal with difficult situations. Let me add a piece of advice here on reading God’s word…. I don’t believe that it is necessary to wear a seatbelt to drive your car either, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a better way to stay alive.

Abraham and Lot.

Abraham loved Lot, but I wonder if they really got along all that well. They both had so many servants that their two clans ended up fighting a lot. No pun intended. Fighting over water. Fighting over where their livestock could graze. Over time it became obvious that things were just not going to work out, so Aberham and Lot part ways. Lot got to choose the land he wanted and that will be a story for another time, but to co-exist they moved on, and put some distance between themselves. No anger, and no hatred. No forcing one to summit to the other. No dehumanizing name calling. Later on, Aberham’s love possibly saves Lot’s life, and the lives of his family, minus his wife, but that is also a story for another time.

There is a division in our country that is demanding surrender, disguised as compromise. I am certain that many, on either side of this thing, have no idea of what is involved or what’s at stake. I think something bad is coming that I want no part of, and eventually there will be a great unraveling that none of us will escape. There are two paths that remain in front of us, and both are heartbreaking….

ws