30 Day Challenge

Greetings dear reader(s) 😊

I have a question for you today. What are you feeding yourselves? I don’t mean the food that you put in your mouth.  Though that is very important as well. No, I am talking about the food you put in your mind.

The following is something that I have pondered for quite some time, and have finally decided to attempt to cohesively write (or type, as it were) it out.

For all those conspiracy theorists out there, this is for you.  For all those who think conspiracy theorists are missing a screw or two, please hear me out.  I want first to provide the foundation for my thinking with the following excerpt from George Orwell’s book, 1984. “The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but, on the contrary, that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretence was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge-hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one’s will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic. And yet the rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blowlamp. Thus, at one moment Winston’s hatred was not turned against Goldstein at all, but, on the contrary, against Big Brother, the Party, and the Thought Police; and at such moments his heart went out to the lonely, derided heretic on the screen, sole guardian of truth and sanity in a world of lies. And yet the very next instant he was at one with the people about him, and all that was said of Goldstein seemed to him to be true. At those moments his secret loathing of Big Brother changed into adoration, and Big Brother seemed to tower up, an invincible, fearless protector, standing like a rock against the hordes of Asia, and Goldstein, in spite of his isolation, his helplessness, and the doubt that hung about his very existence, seemed like some sinister enchanter, capable by the mere power of his voice of wrecking the structure of civilization.” In his book, the people were forced to be subjected to this Two Minutes Hate.  In today’s society, we willingly expose ourselves to not just two minutes, but hours, and sometimes non-stop hate. What do you suppose we are doing to our psyche? If you are stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed, take a step back and look at what your mind is consuming.

Now, in our modern world of algorithms, my Two Minutes Hate may look entirely different than yours. However, the result is the same: creating an us vs them mentality and thus filling each heart with hate for another group of people. 

If you are still reading, great, please stay with me here. As a follower of Jesus, I am called to love my neighbor, and Jesus takes it a step further and calls me to love my enemy. Regarding who our neighbors are, let’s start small and obvious: our actual neighbors across the street, hall, and down the road. Our neighbor is everyone within our sphere of physical approximation and influence. Even (and perhaps especially) those who look, think, and act completely differently from me.  This is all noble and good, but what if Jesus gave us these commands for two reasons?  One, because we are all created in the image of God, and as the Bible says, cursing and blessing should not come from the same tongue. Two, because He knew that love was much healthier for us than hate. When we are filled with anger, bitterness, rage, and hate, our blood pressure goes up, our body cannot defend itself as easily against viruses and illnesses, and we generally feel like crap.  The father of lies tries to get us to think that we are most in control when we hate. That hate drives us to yell and scream, or worse, at those we perceive to be our enemies. However, nothing could be further from the truth.  Superficially, our enemies might be described as those who are against our way of life, thinking, etc., and those are the ones Christ calls us to love. However, our true enemy is the devil, and he is a master at misdirecting our perception of who our enemy truly is.  Why? Because if we view the wrong thing or person as our enemy, then we fight the wrong way, and we set ourselves up for absolute failure.  This misdirection keeps us running in circles, making the devil’s work much easier for him, and he can move on to something else.

But God.  Yes, dear reader(s), God gave us the answer.  We are to love our neighbors, who are both our friends and our enemies.  Why? Because God knows that this frees us in a way we could never imagine, and a way that we cannot consistently do without the power of the Holy Spirit.  When we lead our lives with love, we will find that we are less stressed, anxious, and depressed.  Will we be completely free of all these feelings? No, not on this side of heaven, but they do become more manageable.

It is no accident that one of the terms social media uses is “feed,” because it is directly feeding our mind, which indirectly feeds our body. When we are constantly consuming hate, our bodies are most definitely affected. What is in your social media feed? We do not have much control over things in our lives, but we can choose what we consume.  As followers of Jesus, we can also choose what we put out there on the internet.  There are many who claim to be followers of Christ, but the food they are providing is filled with hate (often in the form of sarcastic so-called humor).  This needs to stop.  We need to be sure that what we are feeding the public is what Christ would feed them.  If we aren’t sure what that is, then we need to go back and read God’s Word, particularly the red letters. Whether Christian or not, we need to take control of our eating habits and algorithms.  We may all believe something different, but that does not mean that our feeds should be full of empty, vile hate.  If you are following someone who tries to lift themselves or their cause up by knocking down someone else’s beliefs or causes, then unfollow/block them immediately.  

Life is too short to live it from a place of hate.  Take this challenge today.  For 30 days, love your neighbors and your enemies. Pray for them, ask God to show you how to love them. Start by watching what you eat. Hate is the junk food of the mind.  It may bring some sense of false comfort and even a feeling of control, but in fact, it is merely a prison cell that is hard to get out of.  Love is the only key to open that prison door. 

Choose love. 

Be Free.  

Shalom