Something that has been exceptionally close to my heart is the slave trade that is going on today. I have learned and studied the slave trade until my whole soul just wants to scream, shout, and destroy the injustice in our world today. Recently though I have begun to study the perpetrator(s), not simply just the victims of the perpetrator(s). The question of; what makes a person so evil, that they could destroy a persons whole life so violently, had been floating around in my head and I needed answers. After plenty of research. I found many many reason for what drives a person to do that kind of evil. I found the core motivation in every single case was self service. It always starts with a need to serve themselves.
I took this theory of self service and started looking at it in less dramatic situations of day to day living. Every single human being is born with sin, which means we are all perpetrators. We have all done things that hurt other human beings. In our culture and cultures all over the world today we are told that if we are not happy we can and must do anything and everything to gain happiness. If our "needs" and "wants" are not getting met, we can simply just forget about everybody else's best interests and do whatever it takes to "complete" or "free" ourselves.
The other day I was driving home from work and I noticed a truck behind me without their lights on, in the dark down pouring rainstorm and I thought some people are idiots. Next thing you know the guy sped up and started driving parallel with my car. I sighed and thought ok some guys are simply over the top. I than noticed that he had his window down and was shouting at me to roll mine down. I rolled mine down a crack, there was no way I was going to get drenched because some guy was being a ridiculous. He then proceeded to yell at me that there was something wrong with my car and that he could help me fix it if I just pulled over at the next grocery store. I rolled my window up, kept driving, and watched as he pulled into the grocery store parking lot. I stopped at the next gas station to double check my car. I didn't expect to find anything out of the ordinary and of course there was nothing wrong with it. As I climbed back into my car sopping wet and now completely angry, I started crying. Not because I was scared or shook up but, because I knew he never wanted to help me he simply wanted to help himself. I cried because, I knew that some girls would be tricked. I cried because, I hate injustice. I cried because, he devalues human life so greatly. I cried because, there are men and women like him all over. I cried because, I too sin and cause others to feel devalued and worthless.
At the very beginning of time we hear God say ALL men are created equal. We look back over the history of our nation, and see Abraham Lincoln fighting for this very thing. ALL men are created equal. Today we watch people fight for those trapped in the bonds of slavery, we watch and hear them say; ALL men are created equal. I believe that every single day, every single one of us needs to be reminded that ALL men are created equal. Every time we demand to be right, every time we decide we are more important, every time we seek to fulfill our needs and wants first, we are placing others in bondage. We are saying; "Sorry but, I believe that I am more important than you. I believe that you are not equal to my awesomeness." How can we fight for the freedom of those trapped in the slavery of our world today if we do not first practice what we preach when we say that; ALL men are created equal.
Of course we are not perfect and we do make mistakes, but if every day we woke up and decided to have an attitude of respect towards those around us; we can start freeing those around us from our prison of self service. We can say honestly that ALL men are created equal. If we work against what our culture is telling us we can begin to build a community of people who have started at the base of the issue. We have decided to learn to become selfless, respectful, patient, and free.
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is also disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. James 4:16-17
