Iron Mountain ski jump

Iron Mountain ski jump

Friday, April 6, 2018

PRAYER FOR A PEACE-LESS FRIEND [F, 4-6-18]


CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith and Life for the Years of Winter…


A couple of years ago, Bert, an old high school acquaintance, came across my email address via another high school acquaintance. He sends out group emails. He added me to the group.

He was a year ahead of me in school. I did not know him well. We did not hang around together. But in a small school, you’re always in some of the same activities, and you get acquainted that way. I remember him as a nice kid, just a regular kid, like all the rest of us.

I do not recall him being especially religious then, but he is now. Every day I got several emails from him quoting Bible verses, most of them having to do with love and forgiveness and the peace that comes with knowing God.

Also every day he sent several irrational emails with scurrilous messages that exhibit the exact opposite traits of his Bible quotes, about how “Obama is a socialist moslim devil” and “you can tell michelle obama hates America because she holds her hand wrong during the national anthem” and “the Obama daughters are ugly and dress like sluts” and “the supreme court is taking away our freedom” and “the gay agenda is all about taking over and putting straights in concentration camps.” There are more, but you can get the drift.

My only replies were to the Bible quotes about love and forgiveness. I told him I appreciated those. I encouraged him to send more of them. I didn’t say a thing about the racist irrationalities. I thought maybe my encouragement of love messages and ignoring of hate messages would lead to a deeper discussion. But it didn’t. I finally gave up. I asked him to stop sending me anything at all. 

He’s older even than I am. He’ll die before long. Then maybe he can find the peace that has so eluded him in this life.

JRMcF
johnrobertmcfarland@gmail.com

No comments:

Post a Comment