What I see...

What I see is people hurting, and it makes me hurt.
What I see is a few with most and the many with less or very little, and it makes me hurt.
What I see is unequal opportunities for our brown and black and poor children, and it makes me hurt.
What I see is fewer jobs for our folk, because somebody got the big bucks to ship jobs overseas and exploit others there for little pay, and it makes me hurt.
What I see is people working two or three part-time jobs at minimum wage, just to survive, which means that they have no time for self, for God, for family for well-being, and they are STILL often not "making it", and it makes me hurt.
What I see is our citizens in the military, many of whom are there because there were no other options for them, being sent in harms way for the profit of a few, creating a blood for money (oil) exchange and injustice around the world as we occupy other sovereign nations in order to take what they have, and it makes me hurt.
What I see is people hating anyone not like them - in religion, in race or ethnicity, in sexual orientation, in ideology and in other areas of uniqueness - and being intolerant of them, even going out of their way to keep them from having equal rights, or going out of their way to discriminate or hurt them by various means, and it makes me hurt.
What I see is the rich taking more for themselves and blaming the poor for the poverty inflicted upon them by the rich, taking more away from them to give to themselves through politics, economic practices and laws, and it makes me hurt.
What I see is that some have the Cadillac of healthcare plans given to them, even paid for by the public, and these same ones strive to deprive anyone else of having even the most basic healthcare available to them, and it makes me hurt.
What I see is medicines created to cure or give comfort, and some cannot afford them so they suffer and die while those who control them make huge profits, and it makes me hurt.
What I see is our environment - land, water and air - being wasted, polluted and destroyed so that a few already wealthy people can make a little more profit at the expense of ALL of us, and it makes me hurt.
What I see is churches reflecting society, rather than addressing it with Jesus' teachings on how to live in the world, exploiting through prosperity theology, controlling with personal salvation theology, ignoring the lack of justice and peace and the immorality of greed in the world, because their silence assures them of benefit from them, and it makes me hurt.
What I see is people, mostly the desperate, needy and greedy flocking to those churches to hear what will justify their lifestyles of greed, power lust and self-indulgence and what makes them feel good, while churches that actually share and live what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for His followers in the world are near empty, and it makes me hurt.
What I see is a media that is propaganda machine for the political and economic "right" and "left", and the factual reporting of truth is lost, and it makes me hurt.
What I see is a satisfaction for the status quo in this country that creates these horrible things, because many in the middle class have some of the trinkets they want and the wealthy few are raking in the dough, while others are "wannabe's" still delusional enough to believe they will be let into the club... so they vote for those who will maintain this inequitable, unequal, unjust, immoral system in order to get or keep what they have at the expense of others, and it makes me hurt.

I have been doing a LOT of hurting in the past 35 of my 57 years.  I hurt for others regularly.  And when I hurt for others I love, it makes me angry.  And when I get angry I write, I speak, I blog, I post on Facebook, I email and I vote.  When I get angry, I stop giving my money to companies and/or industries that abuse others.  When I get angry, I confront, expose the works of darkness and do what I can to actually CHANGE the system as it is. 

Do you get hurt by seeing others in pain, or do you pile on with those who hurt them?
Do you turn a blind eye and deaf ear to the cries of those who are being abused and neglected, and live out your apathetic existence as if none of it is happening?
Do you see and hear what is happening and still complacently enjoy your life?
Do you vote for the one(s) who will most benefit you, personally or who speak your bigotry?
Or do you empathize with those who are being held down, back and out... do you speak out and act on their behalf?  Do you vote for those who will actually CHANGE the system that intentionally hurts them for the sake of a few in power and with wealth?

How developed is your humanity?

Pastor Jamie