Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Seek the light

Isaiah looked into the future and saw hope.

He wrote, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness -- on them light has shined."

Do we understand how important that message still, STILL, is?

We all need to know that what we walk through on a daily basis, this dingy day, this deepening darkness at night, is not all there is.

Have you kept up with all the bully things happening lately? Kids seem to be much more likely to bully others than perhaps they used to be. Deaths have happened because of it. The ones most likely to be bullied, by 63 percent, are those who have a few extra pounds on them. The ones who have a few extra pounds are most of our kids, frankly, as we live in a french fry world.

By sixth grade, teachers reported that 34 percent of the study children had been bullied, and mothers reported that 45 percent of the children had been bullied, while 25 percent of the children themselves said they had been bullied.

Previous research has shown that boys, minorities and children from low-income groups are more likely to be bullied, so the researchers took these factors into account to see if they made a difference. The study authors also considered a child's social skills and academic achievement in their analysis.

I think it's merely another manifestation of a world that is not getting better, but instead is spiraling out of control.

We need to see a light, a great light, a light that will shine into the corners of the deep darkness and run those who stand behind it into the open.

We need a light house, in the shape of wonderful, life-giving hope.

We need, in a word, Jesus. I know what Isaiah knew..."For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.

If we give our children a strong foundation, all of them, if we give them the love of Jesus in our lives, in our family structures, in our days and in our nights, we are much, much, much more likely to eliminate the very need someone would have for bullying.

Jesus taught us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus taught us to love our enemy. Jesus taught us to surrender to others.

One can't do all that, or any of that really, and be a pompous, little bully.

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