The Word 12

[HKHaugan]

“I Wish You Were Dead”

Those were the words sent to me in the comment section of Facebook after I wrote that I supported Chic-Fil-A’s belief about marriage. It wasn’t but a matter of seconds before several hostile replies came. It was as though there were vultures hovering ready to pounce. One was very extreme. Because I was old (seeing my picture I guess) he wished for my quick death. That started me thinking about the words we use and the spirit behind them.

Do any of us realize the origin of the words we use? Words are birthed in what we believe, how we feel and what we are willing to act upon. Do we react at the spur of the moment to something with which our mind disagrees? Do we react in emotional frustration because of the disagreement? Do we take immediate action we conclude is necessary to correct others? So many of our words are borne out of the frustration we have with ourselves, our inadequacies and, of course, with people who just don’t seem to see the world the way I think it ought to be. But it’s that first one, frustration with our own inadequacies, which is the root of our verbally expressed anger toward others.

Unknown to him this hostile person was really an inadvertent blessing in disguise. I think he would even be angrier realizing he had given me an opportunity to ponder his wish and write an article about it. He probably would even be still more angry that I would be encouraged to pray for him and to thank him because he enabled me to think about Jesus being the Word that gives life through words.

But I want to take a different tack here. It occurred to me that wishing someone’s death is more than an individual frustration. It is a part of a culture of death that prevails in our age. What I mean by that is what has happened in the past few centuries. It is a growing shared frustration that takes place in an expanding world population with a technology that is so instant it makes our emotional frustration look for an outlet, a group, a cause, a way to discharge every emotional stimulus. It makes frustration look for a solution, a final solution. That solution is to kill those with whom we disagree. Even if they are just verbalized wishes the desire is shared and adds to the sea of frustration that becomes a social atmosphere accompanied by a religious zeal fomenting physical death.

Historically, we need only look back on our past 20th century to see the death wish, ‘the final solution,’ multiply into the death of six million Jews at the hands of Hitler, forty million Christians at the hands of Stalin, four million at the hands of Pol Pot and now in our own time the death wish extended on every continent through Islamic terrorism. Just the voiced “I wish you were dead” adds to the atmosphere and its not so ‘humane’ solution. We can actually add to or subtract from the atmosphere by our choice of words which is why we as disciples of Jesus start with the Word who inspires our words.

Just what is the modern environment like? There are three observations we can make about the present world.

First, when we are constantly set upon from the media with issues of world-wide significance over which we have no personal control, we believe we are powerless, we feel inadequate and we react.

Second, we live in a world that is demanding more intelligence, more participation and more production yet getting less of each. Why? We feel our personal inadequacies and do the very opposite. Many reject developing their intelligence, choose to emotionally isolate themselves and become less socially productive.

Third, wanting to be and feel more human and humane we react by supporting distant causes dressed in victim’s clothing demanding no personal involvement, only those that make me feel good about myself and judgmental of everyone else. This is done alone in the non-challenging environment of my computer where “I am the master of my fate and the captain of my soul (Invictus, Wm.Ernest Henley).” It’s also the place where we try to be everyone else’s master and captain. It’s all about trying to be human without God. That is what sin has done to us all. We act as though we are perfect and that our way of being perfect is the only way. The very sin that leads us in that direction is the very sin that decides the final solution is the death of those with whom we see as the problem, those with whom we disagree.

We have to accept one basic truth. Human perfection doesn’t exist outside of God. The human mind is flawed, imperfect and limited. Three facts support this, lack of knowledge, guilt and relational conflict.

First, the very fact that man starts within himself, alone and not knowing, that he has to search for what he doesn’t know, speculate on what he doesn’t understand, theorize, guess and contemplate, means he is incomplete and in need of help from without. The very fact that he doesn’t start with being right but has to learn how through trial and error has to say something about imperfection to begin with.

Second, another aspect of this imperfection is the presence of guilt. We feel sorry when we make mistakes or look to blame someone else in order to deal with that internal tectonic shift in the plates of good and evil in our moral sense. Guilt is native to our sin condition. Everyone is guilty about something. Remorse, regret, ruing are symptoms of guilt. Guilt is a pervasive reminder that we are not basically right about anything.
Third, still another is imperfect relationships. Relational conflict happens everywhere in everyone. The world of humanity is all about how we relate to one another. No matter how hard we try to be right about relational issues the inevitability of conflict has a heavy hand.

(These three facts are covered in the introduction to my book, “The Parables; Kingdom’s Keys.”)

So, as disciples of Jesus, we start with Him being the Word who can get us to assess our mind (what we believe), our heart (who we ultimately trust) and our faith (how we act). His Word becomes our starting point, our filter and our guide. We need to choose words from the Word that wish life into the lifeless, light in the unlighted and love to the unloving.