My Questions for Self-Reflection

 

My Questions for Self-Reflection

Below are some questions (and thoughts) that I’ve needed to work through over the last several years, weeks, months, and days. Sure, I have an agenda in posting them, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t legitimately needed to answer them for myself. I really have wrestled with the issues each question raises. Read on if you dare.

Which is better? To feed the poor or to cry about handouts?

Does Bruce Hornsby’s song, The Way It Is still move me? (For others, have you heard it? Here’s a YouTube link: The Way It Is )

If someone needs a hand up, shouldn’t I give it? What if that person has a different skin color? What if they’re an indigenous person living on a reservation? What if that person has a different faith?...a different orientation?...a different political stance? What are the limits of my willingness to help others?

Does my definition of “neighbor” match Jesus’ definition?

Which is more beneficial? To scatter the homeless like cockroaches or to address the issues that have made them homeless? To push them here and there or to help them recover a sense of self-worth and self-esteem? To help them get up or to shove them down and hide them away? Is there another way?

Which is more compassionate? To leave those with mental health issues to fend for themselves or to ensure they have the care they need?

Which is better for our society? To leave the addicted to wallow in their addictions or to take proactive action to give them the healing they can’t get for themselves?

Which constitutional amendment is more important? The 1^st? The 2^nd? The 5^th? The 14^th? The 22^rd? Which guarantee of freedom am I willing to sacrifice for everyone else so that I can get my own way?

What if all the billionaires took some time away from piling up their wealth long enough to pool their resources and fund solutions for the weakest and most vulnerable among us?

I’m not a billionaire, but am I willing to have some skin in the solutions game?

Which do I value more? Power or compassion?

What good is it to gain the wealth and power of the whole world only to lose the very essence of being a human being?

Why does our society let insurance companies dictate medical care?

Even if that guy holding the sign at the intersection is running a hand-out scam, how low does a person have to fall in order to think that begging in traffic is the best use of their talents?...the best way to make a living? Can I still find some compassion in my heart for them despite their deception?

Maybe I should send a supply of WWJD bracelets to the President, to the congressional leaders, to the ICE agents, and to each of the various federal departmental secretaries. Would Jesus cut medical funding for the elderly, the poor, the struggling? Would Jesus send those people back to Haiti to be killed by the ruthless gangs that have overrun the country? To Mexico to be beheaded by the local drug cartel? Would Jesus burn the food supplies that were halted when USAID was shuttered instead of sending it on to the starving children in Africa? Would Jesus have nothing to say about the starving people of Gaza? What would Jesus do? What should I do at this point?

How could I claim to be a Christian if my political ideals were more important to me than loving my neighbor, feeding the hungry, clothing those who need clothes, and caring for the sick? Isn’t that a functional oxymoron?

How corrupt would my favorite politician need to be before I stopped believing everything he or she said? How many pardoned fraudsters? How many conflicts of interest? How many lies?

At what point does it become okay for me to turn a blind eye to human suffering?

What would it take for me to harden my heart to the pain being inflicted on people who are just trying to find a better life for themselves and their families?

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America.” –The Preamble of the Constitution of the United States of America – Am I still committed to this? (Are you?)

For all of you who’ve read through my questions of self-reflection...

Which of the above questions gave you pause?

Which one is your favorite?

Which made you mad?

Are you mad at me for asking the questions, or are you mad because they made you uncomfortable?

My reflections are ongoing and I’m still in a state of transformation. Are you willing to do some self-reflection of your own, do you have the guts? Or are you going to harden your heart?

Did you even read this far? Let me know if you did.