a renaissance

I wrote this a few years ago, and came across it again. Isn't it interesting when you revisit something and find it more relevant today than ever before? This is that. It resonated internally for me. I am hopeful maybe it will resonate for you.

I recently concluded watching a short-lived series that has been remarkably entertaining for me. The two minute interview with the show's creator was the finest two minutes of the series. That doesn't reflect poorly on the show, rather speaks volumes to the writer's capacity to enlighten.

He made two comments that specifically brought audible responses from Joy and I both.  The first, "people are just MEAN to one another now.  Everyone thinks their comments should be snarky. Snarky is the idiot's attempt at wit." 

He then concluded by saying that he wished people would just be NICER to one another, that perhaps there could be a renaissance of decency.

a renaissance of decency. 

I took the next few days and watched my FB feed carefully, watched the headlines on my homepage, listened to my beautiful wife obsess over her homepage as I drove - (yes, this is what it's like in my truck, Joy scanning headlines and asking if I knew that there was an epidemic somewhere overseas, or had seen the headline from the BBC about something.)

I began to consider the things that took my emotional energy during the day, the office banter, even the text messages, and found myself inundated with just, junk.

I am fully aware we are to think on whatever is good, the Bible has a TON of good sense material even if you don't want to accept the Truth of who God is.  One of them is that golden rule about treating others as you want to be treated.  Not

AS

you are treated - not as you think they

DESERVE

 to be treated - but as you

WANT

 to be treated.

I am also aware that the older I get, the more like Don Quixote I may appear, but I can't help but feel in my heart, my gut, whatever, that even if the Bible isn't true, and I believe with all my heart it is, how bad would it be to actually live out the precepts that are there? Why couldn't we love one another, speak well of one another? What is lost in doing so?

A renaissance of decency doesn't mean talking smack about things we disagree with - it may mean letting things that don't really matter stop bottling up our newsfeed.  I am the chief of sinners when it comes to throwing some remark on a thread just for the momentary chuckle, but what if we actually started looking at the body of work we are putting out there on the World Wide Web? How many people may read this note that may never share a face-to-face conversation with me?

One of the most dangerous things about the internet and social media is the two-edged sword that allows every voice to be heard.  A forum doesn't mean the content of the message deserves an audience.  My father told me there was no such thing as common sense, that you could go around the corner and find someone to show no sense at all.  Because you have a voice doesn't

ENTITLE

you to a message, it

REQUIRES RESPONSIBILITY

 for what that message will be.

As for me, I want to be a part of this renaissance of decency.  I want to follow the house rules that God laid out, and Hosea shared a few years ago in a sermon. I want to think well of others, speak well of others and TO others. I want to spend less time critical and more time building. Can I make a difference by myself? Maybe not to anyone but me, but hey, it's a start.

A renaissance of decency - a quest - I like it. Care to join me?