Sunday, April 3, 2011

Treat others as you want to be treated

Sorry I have been away for a while. Gotten busy here lately. Working on something which I hope to surprise you with coming soon.

I was just thinking about something yesterday especially but also today. There are a lot of things that can happen in life and to any one of us. Things happen everyday that people did not plan for or would not wish for.

It can be a disease or disability through an accident. The unfortunate thing is that we as society tend to treat people differently based on whatever malady they might be going through. The other is that their circumstances don't make their heart any different from what it was before. The outside might change because of illness or disability, but the heart is the same, and that person is still the same old person they have always been.

The thing is that as society we treat people with disabilities or some sort of sickness "differently" whether we admit it or not. Some sicknesses or circumstances are superstitiously considered to be visitations upon them for their sins or some wrongdoing. AIDS patients for example are treated somewhat differently depending on the culture but it is generally a stigma no matter where one is.

Disabled individuals, especially those whose disability comes later in life are also treated differently. Usually the immediate family is sympathetic of course but strangers generally are not as sympathetic. To a stranger, it is just another disabled person.

That leads to my question. Do we have to know someone directly who has experienced any of the above examples for us to understand their situation and to be sympathetic? Does it have to come so close to home that we finally can understand their situation, how tough and burdensome life can be, especially when people don't fully understand the magnitude of the situation?

The thing is that if you end up in similar circumstances or with disability, how would you want people to treat you? No matter our circumstances, we all want to be treated equally and fairly. The thing is that we are truthfully not as sympathetic when we are spectators but if tables were to turn, I believe we would then understand how it feels to be marginalized because of one's situation.

No matter what's going on outwardly whether it's disease or disability, something stays constant and that is that person's heart. That person might be someone's child, or father, brother, or friend just as you might love your beloved. They still have a heart and are the same inside as they were before. If they were beloved or loveable before their circumstances, does that make them any less loveable after?

They are still the same person, just going through unfortunate circumstances. You and i know that deep inside we would want to be treated the same in sickness or in health, in disability or not. As society we do treat people in those circumstances differently from the rest, mostly without our realizing it. We might even avoid helping them in certain situations when we know we should have. We don't quite understand their challenges and the isolation they might experience depending on their circumstance.

But would you want people to avoid helping you when you desperately needed assistance? would you want people to isolate you because of a stigma attached to your circumstance? Would you want to be treated any less differently from before the change in your circumstances? Would you not want to be treated like everyone else and to be loved like everyone else and to be appreciated just like before?

They need love too just like we do. They also have dreams and hopes and are no different from before. If you or I were to be in the same circumstances, we know that our hearts would be the same old person we have always been and nothing different. Just circumstances different, not the heart.

Friends, I was just thinking about this and decided to share my thoughts. This is how I look at this and you might see things differently on this. I was just thinking that just as I need love right now, i would probably need it more to be able to weather change in circumstance. If we are "okay" and need love and support, what more someone we might know or even more, someone we might not know whose situation we know nothing about or understand.

We all need love no matter our situations. We all would like to be treated equally and without partiality no matter our circumstances.  We all would like to be seen for what's in our hearts, not our outward appearance or whatever we might be experiencing. One is not any less human because of what they might be going through.

God is not partial and sees the heart and judges based on the heart and not the outward appearance or what's going on outwardly, as is written:

For there is no respect of persons with God. Romans 2:11.

But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. James 2:9.

Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. Acts 10:34, 35.

I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality. 1 Timothy 5:21.

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. James 3:17.


So friends, if god is not partial or does not people differently because of their circumstances but looks on the heart and based on their heart, what about us?

We can't even see a person's heart like God does therefore, even to judge is not right for us to do. Our duty is to be impartial and to love our Neighbour as ourselves, regardless of their circumstances.


And it is also important for us to remember that we are not exempt from these things. If unfortunate circumstances befall you or I, we would still want to be treated the same and to be loved just as much as before, if not more.

Just a thought friends.

God Bless








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