A lot of what is called humor today is really not funny at all. It seems like we have begun to consider cutting comments, nasty comebacks and words that are designed to hurt and tear down as humorous.
I have watched a few of the America’s funny videos and I am almost always appalled that people would watch others being hurt. It isn’t funny, it is painful to see the pain of others put out there in a way to make us laugh at them. Not with them, but at them.
How would any of us like it if we were to slip and fall, hurt ourselves and then find out that someone filmed it and put it out for the world to laugh at us. I don’t think many of us would appreciate it. There might be a few who are okay with it, Usually it is one of those things where you are happy to laugh at others but don’t want those same others to laugh at you.
Before I became quite ill two years ago, my husband and I watched a number of sitcoms. One of them, we had followed for years and it was in its last season.
After I was able to sit up again and watch television, we tried to watch our favorite shows which we had recorded. We both found that what we had thought was funny before was, in reality quite mean-spirited. We deleted the shows and have never had a desire to watch a sitcom again. We could not stand watching people be mean to one another for a laugh.
Being mean-spirited or simply mean to other people is quickly becoming our way of life. It is a socially acceptable way to deal with people who don’t look, think, act, or believe what you do. After all, if they are so absolutely wrong, why not mock them, tear them down. Why not crush them and destroy them while we are at it?
After all, since they are wrong, they don’t deserve to live.
Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? However, that seems to be the way the vast majority of people feel these days. In theory, it sounds ridiculous; in practice, it is dangerous.
When did we become to sure that our way is the right way? As far as I know, there is only one right way. That is the way of God.
Even though I am a Christian, I don’t believe for a moment that I have everything right. I don’t always do, think or act right. When I act out of the true nature of God, I am following the ways of Satan.
Yes, even Christians can be influenced by Satan. We are all, at heart, sinners. We are born with a sin nature and it is hard for us to break away from what seems to be an okay way of acting.
Actually, that is the point. The world is sinful so when we act in sin, we are just one of the crowd. We are joyfully accepted by those around us because darkness loves other darkness. What darkness can’t stand is light. Darkness flees in the presence of light.
Jesus is the Light of the World. No darkness of this world or of the spiritual world can stand against him. Just like the legion of demons, who possessed a man, recognized Jesus as God and begged to be sent into a herd of pigs rather than be destroyed, sin will always flee from the light of Christ.
Christians are called to walk in the Light. We are told we are to follow the teachings of Jesus and to live our lives the way he lived his. And while our sins have been forgiven when we accepted Jesus as our savior, we still continue to fall into sin.
That isn’t something that surprises God. He knew this would happen. That is why it took God himself, in his son Jesus, to be an acceptable and perpetual sin offering for the sins of the world. He knew that we were born in sin and that, throughout our lives, we would continue to sin.
One big difference between a Christian and a non-Christian who sins is that the Christian will know that they are sinning. It will lodge in their heart and come into their mind over and over again. It will continue to torment them until they take it to our Father and ask for him to, once again, forgive us and to teach us to act in accordance with his holy way.
When we do so, God is good and just to his word and will forgive us forever. It doesn’t mean we won’t suffer because of those sins but our suffering will be limited to the short amount of time we spend on this earth. That amount of time pales in comparison to the eternity that we will spend in the glory of heaven which is God the Father, Jesus the son and the Holy Spirit.
So, being mean to one another is another way of hating one another. That is not what Jesus called us to do. He wants us to love and help one another just as he loved and helped us.
We need to start paying attention to what we watch and read and understand that those things have great influences upon us. It is much easier to start changing how you talk and feel when you are no longer being constantly exposed to these types of shows and books.
Once you have cleared out the things that tempt you to hurt others, you can start reading the Bible to see how we should love. Since Jesus is Love and he showed us that love on the cross by giving himself up in our place, we can start by reading the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) in which we see his words and his actions and what he asked us to do.
1 John 4:7-11
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.