SEEN, BUT FORGOTTEN

I'm always fascinated by how shallow so many people are. You can turn on the television or radio and hear all the rhetoric about equality and fairness you can digest, but it doesn't have much to do with how people actually treat each other.

Jesus once reminded his disciples that the second most important commandment was to love thy neighbor as thyself. I feel that means basically that we should treat others as we would want to be treated. However, I don't see that practiced very often in life.

I hardly consider myself to be a model of that kind of compassion and love, but I have tried on many occasions to be fair and deal with others honestly. I only wish doing so brought any results. Gratitude is not the word that comes to mind when I think of how I've been treated by those that I tried to help or had to deal with in one way or another.

Naturally being dealt with unfairly doesn't make a person smile. And yet, I also understand that happens to many people.

Perhaps the most mystifying element to me is when I see someone who is clearly abusive and yet others think the person is a saint. This happens so often in churches. You can see someone who is a downright crook outside of Sundays at church, but in the house of worship the person is thought of as a good person.

Why does this happen so often? Well obvious sin plays a part. As does Satan. Evil people often have the ability to mask their sins in a way so they can continue to perpetuate their wrong. Satan isn't going to allow that to be stopped willingly.

Part of me grows angry over all the injustice. I grow weary at times from trying to deal fairly with people only to be betrayed or have my rights violated by these same people.

But I also know such people are accountable to the Lord just like I am for their actions. In this life at times we must content with people being their true selves. And that means they will expose the blackness of their hearts way too often.

What I understand though is that God sees the truth. He knows the lies and deceit people practice and try to mask as righteousness. Only at times he doesn't interfere with this evil he will judge it in eternity.

None of that will necessarily make us satisfied in this life when we don't reap any blessing from our labors and end up being misunderstood and discriminated against by others. What does warm me is the knowledge that God can give us the strength to battle against the anger and hated with a different response.

I take comfort in seeing the times when the truth finally comes out about some people's evil. And I really enjoy when God does it without it being by my hand.

Only there is so often the sad part is when others discover a saint was really a devil and never let it affect their behavior. Some people will never be free from the blindness of the heart.