Here’s my question of the day. When did kindness stop being cool?
I mean, I think it was back in the late 80’s but all the hairspray altered my memory a bit, so I could be wrong. Regardless of when, it seems to be the case that hateful, selfish, arrogant people not only get ahead in our culture, they become role models for some unimaginable reason.
I could list names but I’m sure you can come up with your own. Politicians, athletes, actors, singers, social media “stars” and the like. It wasn’t that long ago when a person who was openly unkind, cocky, out of control, bragged about taking advantage of someone or simply was full of themselves had to fear criticism, the loss of income or even less popularity. Unfortunately, that’s not the case these days. In fact, it seems like the cruder a person can act the more famous they become.
Granted, our culture no longer respects and desires the level of character and integrity that the Bible calls people to; but, most of the people that read my blog claim to be followers of Christ, therefore, I’m mainly speaking to us as Christians. Do you look up to people that exemplify the very things that should bring conviction in your life? Are you shocked or bothered by the fact that many who call themselves Christians often idolize the same people that proudly exemplify the opposite of what God defines as good and holy? Things such as servant hood, selflessness, generosity, sacrificial living, suffering for others, kindness, truthfulness, humility, gentleness, modesty, hard work, lack of self awareness or the need to be seen…. the list could go on and on. Isn’t that who we see when we look at Jesus? It’s even in the Old Testament. Israel was given clear instructions to respect the elders, search long and hard for the owner of something that was lost instead of keeping it, never cheat, never steal, help a neighbor in trouble, give 10% of what you have and leave even more for those who are in need…you get the picture.
This may make more sense to many of us that grew up watching TV. I’m talking about “Little House on the Prairie” values. Common sense standards that most people use to live by because we knew they made for a better society.
As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t matter how talented you are, how pretty you are or how much money you have – how you speak, act and treat people should be more important than anything. A culture that idolizes and reveres meanness ends up with a country full of bullies.
And that’s literally the case in our time as we can see from the top to the bottom of our culture.
And yet, people don’t seem to be bothered. I can only wonder why. Maybe because getting what you want is the highest priority. The problem is, that will actually get us exactly what we don’t want and we’re watching that play out in race relations, politics, finances and more.
Thank goodness there are still some in the public eye who live there lives with kindness, generosity, gentleness and love. I’m hoping for the day when the negative actions of people will disgust the general public and be ignored by the media. When the news consists of story after story of people that turned bad situations into opportunities to do something good. When this standard is what our children want to rise to simply because it’s how they would want to be treated.
After all, contrary to popular belief, “God helps those that help themselves” is no where in the Bible. BUT “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” certainly is. As Ellen DeGeneres says, “Be kind to one another.” I agree.
Simply Me and Jeans 