Jude 1:10 “But these people attack with insults, anything they do not understand; and those things that they know by instinct are the very things that destroy them.”
Our society today is making a habit of verbally attacking people who do not conform to the “norm”. Looking back fifty years or so, it seems like our world was more compassion and innocence back then. Trust me, that’s what age does to our memory.
We only seem to recall the good times of our younger years. But last week I was reminded of the dark times of my youth back in the ‘50’s. In our town we had no special education programs in public schools. So the special students had to ride the same bus, sit in the same cafeteria, and sit in the back of the same class as everyone else. We never talked to them because we thought they were “dumb”. They made us feel uncomfortable.
Therefore, we made fun of them and pushed them around. In short, we did not treat them like the other students. In reality, we were self-righteous and just did not try to understand them or their needs. Then in college, I took a Developmental Psychology class which required two months of lab work in the Greenville Tennessee Mental Hospital. It was there that I discovered how I was guilty of not understanding special people and condemning the individual because of my desire not to understand. Several young patients were severely deformed or had serious mental deficiencies because their mother or father had been an excessive user of lead filled moonshine or had been users of recreational drugs. Others were just the way God created them. All of them were special people who had the same basic needs that I had.
They wanted to love and to be loved. I then understood, and asked the Lord to forgive me for insulting others and being a real “jerk”. As we look back on our past, do we find false thoughts, beliefs, or prejudices that do not fit into the teachings of Scripture?
Can we be honest with ourselves and stop the chain of misunderstanding that may have passed from generation to generation or from childhood to now? It might help us all to be more humble, to get on our knees, and ask the Lord for the compassion and wisdom to love people right where they are.
And pray for understanding to love them the way the Lord loves them, and us.
Unconditionally.