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In the words of Martin Luther King;
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
Well, who is not guilty of getting caught in an occasional quote hunt? I believe it is a constructive use of time once managed properly. However, on the occasional quote hunt we must think on these things.
I wonder what were the sequence of events surrounding these powerful words written by Martin Luther. The truth is screamed so loudly here that the denial of the validity of these words would just be completely absurd. There is trust in revealing our truth, there is peace in our ability to love beyond boundary. As we forego our urge to win, we thrust ourselves into oneness. A great level of hurt is inevitable on this quest to make truths transparent and love transcend. I wonder about the amount of hurts a great man like Martin Luther would have encountered (at least the ones we could not see) trying to live his truth through these words.
This brings me to a sore topic of discussion. People with too soft hearts…
That is how we term it. We find seemingly quivering character and call it softness of heart. These are the people who forgive easily, reconcile easily, love easily, care easily and are generally receptive of people very easily. These are the people who express exactly what the quote above states. Often times these are also the people with the most savaged hearts, the most wounds, just the most hurts.
In the quiteness of my time with God, I tried to put this in perspective. It is quite amazing that this was revealed in the scripture;
Galatians 6:9
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
The first assurance we see in the scripture here is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with being able to easily respond in one of these ways mentioned above. We directly see here that we must not be weary in doing good. Weary is basically being tired and one can only be tired after toiling. Therefore, regardless of the amount of times you have done a good act there is really space to do more. So there is nothing wrong with you for having a first instinct of forgiveness, reconciliation, love, care and compassion on repeat.
In fleshing this out we see that the problem lies not in the act itself. It lies in the response on the receiving end. The reality is that the world is truly a messed up place. A place of non-ending cycles of hurt. A lot of people do not know how to respond to forgiveness on repeat or love on repeat or even care on repeat. Therefore in trying to climb to this height of untainted goodness, reciprocation is very slim. Whether you find yourself on the giving end or the receiving end there’s something to take away from this.
On the Giving End
Be unapologetic in your ability to express repeated goodness. The world needs givers of Love as the scriptures set out. Do not give up on being this way. You can be as Galataions sets forth. Ask God for strength when encountering hurts on this journey. Note that benevolence does not always require reciprocation. Sometimes your act serves to plant a seed in the life of another, that will blossom another soul as beautiful as yours. When you become weary, remember there’s a harvest to reap in time. Some hurts are inevitable in this journey and others can be avoided by learning how to discern where to invest emotions through prayer. Trust God to know the people who will be temporary and permanent in your life ( you can read my previous blog “The Rejects” for more insight on this).
On the Receiving End
Be good receivers of all the love and care that you need. This means you’re in a time of being refurbished if you’re too empty to give. Be good stewards of what you have received. Water it and mold it into something beautiful until you’re able to give.
God’s heart is for us to be able to receive and give goodness. Jesus is the perfect example of goodness on display. He faced much ridicule on his acts of goodness. But look at the boundless amount of benefits we now enjoy because of his goodness. Continue doing good.
There’s much impact in your goodness.
Maranatha 