Saturday, April 20, 2013

Always Respond with Love

 Miriam Quiambao, Paula Salvosa a.k.a. Amalayer, Janine Tugonon.
How are they similar?

They all stirred controversies.
One expressed opinions on homosexuality and stirred the LGBT community.
One had an encounter with the lady guard and had her outburst caught on cam.
One had her decisions on love and friendship exposed for all the world to know.

How else are these three similar?
They are Christians. They are fellow believers. (Welcome to the family, Paula! )
This saddens me every time a new controversy arises about a brother or a sister in Christ.
Not because of having the "religion" humiliated, but because I see how unloving this world is becoming. 
What pains me more is how some Christians actually do some of the bashing, all for the wrong reasons..  
To exhibit your knowledge about the law?
To showcase your "admirably sound" judgment?
To show people how much wisdom you have in your opinions?

Most of the time, this is done unmindfully.
We become a little too forgetful of what the message of Christianity really is.
Our role in this world is not to judge.
That is not our job. Judgment belongs only to God.
Our role is to show the world how much Jesus loves everyone - including these people with such controversies.
It is our job to show the world the much broader (and wiser) perspective only God could enable us to see.

Because of the worlds-apart distance between us and these much-celebrated figures, we forget that they are actual people, like any of us.
Like us, they have their own share of mistakes.
Look back at those moments in your life when you said something you regret, or did something that was even worse than what some of them did. If everything you do, 24/7, is televised, would it create as much controversy? How would the people who know you react?
It would indeed be controversial.
We all have our share of failures and mistakes. We all share shameful acts and embarassing decisions.
That's why we have no right to judge what they do.
Especially that...
Like us, they are misunderstood. 
We don't have any license to say anything bad about anyone, because our knowledge of their situation is very limited to what the media tells us... We should not talk bad about them, even though everyone already does it. We don't even know them personally, and we just assume with the very few details presented to us by fellow gossipers.
Pano mo nalamang di siya marunong magmahal? Tropa mo?! Hahaha
When we hear other people judging us without even knowing us personally, we are enraged.
We want to punch the person in the face with our facts that would prove them wrong.
But when it comes to these popular people, we easily overlook our unfair and harsh judgment.
That's how selfish we are: When it's you who is hastily judged, you get angry. But when it's you who gives hasty judgments, you don't think twice at all.

We cannot even define who they are through the very few details we know about them.
Do you want to be defined by perverted information about you? Of course not!
You don't even want your failures to define who you are.
That's not the way we want to be looked at.
That's not the way Jesus looks at them.

I know how we could get over-reacting, especially when it is a fellow believer who is the center of the controversy. We also get over-judging when the issue challenges our beliefs!
I know, because I reacted unlovingly when I first heard about the Amalayer incident (with Paula Salvosa).
I laughed at what happened, watched all the parodies, and barely thought of her as an person who is cyberbullied. I forgot that she is someone whom God loves. 
It was until I watched her testimony, where she shared how one outburst at the LRT Station almost ruined her life, that my perspective about such issues was rebuked by God.

I was surprised when I realized how a simple tweet of 140 characters, but filled with God's love, changed her life.

A little prayer. An encouragement. An effort to put an end to the waves of discouragement and bashing.
What these real people need is a reminder of God's love.
Not our "righteous" opinions.
Not satiric parodies of their mistakes.
Not even in-your-face tweets or statuses.
In the end, what everyone needs is love.

In the thoughts you drown your mind with, and in the things you say..
In everything you do, have your  checked by your Master.

How do you respond when you hear about issues about other people?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You really made a good point about these issues.
We are not the judgers of this world, but there is He who'll come to judge this world.
I also wish that people could understand the destruction they caused by bashing these people with a very minimal information.

God bless you and keep this going!

Faye Medina said...

Without God I would not have thought of any of this.
I may not say a lot of bad things about these people before, but I was one of those who made fun of these controversies as if there were no real people actually hurting. ☹ I'm so thankful that I was rebuked and would have the privilege to encounter God by praying for these people. ♡

God bless you too! Thanks for visiting ☺