It's funny how most of my thoughts seem to occur while riding in a car. Because when everything around you is muffled in an enveloping cloak of silent tranquility, you hear the raging wars in your head. I find myself with plenty of wars, and scarce reinforcements to support me sometimes. Is this just?
So I came to think of a concept of a righteous anger. First introduced to me at a spiritual camp called Encounter, I've been developing the concept in my mind. I strive to understand if there can be such a thing because out of a natural human desire there are things I feel I have a right to be angry about. But that's not what righteous anger is. . . We shouldn't seek to justify our own bursts of anger, but we are called to identify injustices in the world, and if we can do something to change the situation for the better, we must do so with a righteous anger.
We're called to tend to the poor and homeless, but we instead choose to appease the rich and powerful. Justice isn't even served in a society that places more value on how many people you can tackle, touchdowns you can score, or how much taste one has in clothing over being intellectually proficient to a degree of being potentially able to make a valuable contribution to a slowly degrading society. (Whew, long sentence. Take a breather, you deserve it). Degrading in that we sacrifice morals and values for the sake of entertainment or earning a sense of acceptance from everyone else.
Now that I put that all down on the table, what am I supposed to do? I already strive to not fall into conformism. What else am I called to do?
Some things are put into our lives merely to change us, and we can only hope it's for the better. Some things are different because they're meant only for us. I believe that those things are what we need to look for. Those are the things that make us who we are, they make us into the people we grow into. However, they are different. And if we spend our time immersed in conformism, we shut our eyes to the things that can truly make us who we are.
To tie it all up: Things aren't right in society, and we aren't right to conform to them. We must face the world firmly in what we know is right and be watching for the blessings and paths God provides us. We're called to take our stand against the world's temptations with a righteous anger, but with a loving attitude. There's a middle ground for all of us, we just need to find it.
1 comment:
Well Dan, I can honestly say that this is probably one of the most profound things that you've said, although you're a tad late at making this realization. I'm not sure that I'd call it righteous anger. At least not for myself. There are things that I do find that inherently upset me for little to no reason at all but I do not do the things that I do, like giving you advice or helping out people that I don't know, to spite conformity or to vindicate a just cause. I ceased all together thinking about what was socially acceptable and started doing what was morally right. Hence why I'm such an outcast and do not fit into society even though it seems like I have many friends who inhabit it. And who better to get advice from than a person who lives outside your world and can give you sound wisdom without bias? But I digress, if you cease to stop worrying about conformity or social acceptability all together only then can you escape conformity because to worry about it is just like everyone else who is caught in its vice grip.
~Jason Gumawid AKA Your Guardian Angel
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