This week: What Do You Stand For? Edited by: Kitti the Red-Nosed Feline More Newsletters By This Editor
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If you could change one thing about your society to your liking, what would it be? What are you doing to achieve this?
This week's Spiritual Newsletter is all about standing up for what you feel is right.
Kitti the Red-Nosed Feline |
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I’m sure that you’ve heard of the saying that if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything. How true is this? I’m not entirely certain, but I do know that it is indeed important to take a stand when you’re faced with something you feel is unjust, something that matters to you, something where you can make a difference.
The trouble is... I don’t know about you, but I see so many things that I feel are unjust. There are times when I can’t even watch or read the news any longer, otherwise I will want to hide under a duvet for the foreseeable future. I mean, where do I begin? Violence, poverty, hunger, thirst, the damage that is being done to our environment, corruption... Each and every day there are people suffering when something could be done to stop it. We may not want to acknowledge it, but a lot of suffering is avoidable. We don’t need to be horrible to one another. We don’t need to fight one another. There are enough resources around for everyone to live a good life.
I know that my saying that will make me sound like a lefty/liberal or whatever, but so be it. I don’t really identify as anything when it comes to the political spectrum. I have no political allegiance. To be frank, I feel that politics is a mess right now and I don’t trust any party. I may not know everything, but I know enough to say that we can do better. We ought to do better.
My readership here comes from a variety of different faiths. Some, like me, are not a member of any organised religion. I think that what we have in common, however, is that we believe in goodness and kindness, in helping one another when we’re in a position to do so. Writing.Com is a special community where we don’t divide ourselves along the lines of religion/faith, nationality, race, gender, age, or any of those divisions that we witness daily in our societies. If the world were like this community, wouldn’t it function a whole lot better?
The religion that I am most familiar with, due to my upbringing, is Christianity. I know that Jesus didn’t say to let the hungry starve, the thirsty dehydrate, the ill become homeless due to a lack of state and community support, and so on. Matthew 25:34-40 says quite the opposite:
“Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, my Father has blessed you! Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you took me into your home. I needed clothes, and you gave me something to wear. I was sick, and you took care of me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ “Then the people who have God’s approval will reply to him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or see you thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you as a stranger and take you into our homes or see you in need of clothes and give you something to wear? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ “The king will answer them, ‘I can guarantee this truth: Whatever you did for one of my brothers or sisters, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did for me.’
There are no excuses there about how, if someone is poor and in need, they probably didn’t work hard enough. Jesus didn’t split the world into the deserving and the undeserving when it comes to helping each other out.
Of course, we are not always in a position to help. Sometimes we are the hungry, the thirsty, sometimes we are ill. There may come a time when we are the stranger in need of shelter – life has its twists and turns. I am aware that mixing politics and religion is something that most would recommend me to avoid, but we’re at a point when morality urges me to speak out: whatever position we find ourselves in, what we can do is stand for these principles, because even when we cannot come to someone’s aid on an individual basis, together we have the power to shape our nations and the way our governments treat those in need of assistance.
It’s good to remember that lifting people up rather than dragging them down is not only the kinder thing to do, it’s also far more constructive. Offering someone a helping hand may well lead to that person going on to achieve great things.
I don’t come from a wealthy background, and if it hadn’t been for the availability of support, I wouldn’t now have a university degree, and gone on to be a postgrad student. I won’t say that I have achieved anything great, but I hope to do good things in the future. The least I can do right now that I am in a position to do so, is to contribute to charities. It’s good to pass it forward.
Even when we can’t do anything major, we can help those in our communities, both online and offline. Offline I am fortunate to live in a village where, when someone’s house burned down, we pulled together to help the family. We have elderly people who cannot walk very well, so they receive help with their shopping. My neighbours and I can borrow tools from one another, and pass the other food every now and then. If someone who we know hasn’t been feeling well hasn’t been seen around, we make sure to check up on them.
Here on Writing.Com, we can help, too. A kind email or cNote goes a long way. I know that my achievements on here are in no small part because of the advice, encouragement and support I have received from other members.
We’re stronger together. We’re stronger when we stand together. Together, we can make a difference.
Kitti the Red-Nosed Feline
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