Tuesday; October 12

There are two reasons writers reveal their thoughts. One is merely to present facts, the other is persuasion. I will be open and forthright from the very beginning, this piece of work is about trying to change people.

You may have noticed the recent attention on the murder rate in the United States in the past year? Several articles have mentioned it and many of them have tried to find the correlation between cause and effect. As you might imagine; the impact of COVID-19, the availability of guns and a distrust of our fellow man have been cited as reasons for the rise in homicides. While I am sure there is a statistical basis for each of these researchers, I would like to present my thoughts – which are very simple and quite light on facts. The reason we are killing people at the rate we are is because we aren’t loving people like we should! Godly principles and values have been replaced by those driven by self-serving agendas and the result is a recession (or even a depression) in the value of life. Bad things happen when we stop loving our neighbors and one of the worst is a rise in the murder rate.
Jesus addressed the prohibition against unjustified killing in the Sermon on the Mount, but the thing that gets my attention is His platform of love, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you … (Matthew 5:43-44). Yes, murder is bad and the current rates are inexcusable. However, let’s make sure we are addressing the problem with the proper solution. By loving our neighbors – even those we don’t know and especially those we don’t like – we will see a decline in murders and a rise in good will!

Think About It!

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