A Wake up Call

I was thinking about predestination and choice and why that matters specifically with regards to the recent White Supremist incident and it's aftermath.  At first glance this group of humans does not seem like a group of humans at all but instead a demonic mob incited by Satan itself.  In fact, social psychology has proven that groups tend to make more extreme decisions than individuals (group polarization).  Yet I was struck by the fact that one of the group's members was just a kid who's mother had no idea what he was doing. He was human.  I think it is very important that he's given the dignity of choice no matter how tragic the outcome.  The question is: do these people recognize what they are doing for what it is?

As I was running I was thinking about how we set boundaries for ourselves so that we can live healthy, productive lives.  One of those boundaries I’ve set for myself is working out 4 times a week.  It’s great because it’s flexible.  I don’t’ have to exercise on a certain day.  It could be however long I have too, 30 min-an hour.  Why do I set this boundary?  Does this matter to me?  Moving is something that helps my body feel healthy, helps it operate correctly.  Specifically for me if I don’t work out I have bad back pain. I know what it feels like to not work out and to work out.

So coming back to that choice.  I think people do recognize what they’re doing for the most part.  I don’t think they recognize the long term outcomes of their actions.  They don’t know yet- It’s like they are unhealthy individuals eating whatever they want and just being a couch potato.  But they haven’t gained weight.  It hasn’t affected them in a deep way yet.  But they don’t know yet what it feels like to give up those things and to move into a healthy lifestyle because they’ve never tried it.  They only know their perception of reality.  So they continue to choose their perception of reality.

They have to have an wake up call, a reason to move past their reality.

I think one of the best examples of this "wake up call" I found watching this TV show on Netflix called the Crown about Queen Elizabeth and Winston Churchill.  It's a true story that fog descended on England for a week I think it was.  The fog created unsafe and unhealthy living conditions in London by trapping emissions in the air.  Many people died as a result.  

It was a national crisis yet the Churchill was very stubborn in saying there was nothing he could do about it and refused to do anything because it didn’t matter to him personally.  He thought it was just weather and it was going to pass. We can venture to say perhaps his personal living conditions, being from a different socio economic class than the rest, was all he perceived and therefore his perception of reality was skewed.  

Yet a girl who worked for him—a girl who sort of idolized him and devoted herself to studying his work and had made some sort of an impact on him through working with him—was running in the dark and couldn’t see her way in the dark trying to help her friend who was very sick from the fog, gets hit by a bus and dies.  Well, Churchill found out about this and we see him at the the hospital in a rage. All of a sudden he is a stake holder.  Now it matters to him.  Now he’s invested. 

My use of business terms is intentional.  A stakeholder is simply someone who is invested. They’ve put forth their own money because they believe in something.  A lot of people don’t do that with this issue of racism because they don’t see it as an issue.  A lot of people that I have talked to are not necessarily biased one way or the other.  But because of their socio economic background, their geographic location, the people they’re around constantly, it doesn’t mean anything to them personally.

Churchill reacted to this girl's death, put forth money from the government towards the hospitals and recovery, and was willing to do what he could. This story is a great example of what it looks like to make a choice but not be fully aware of what your choices entail for other people.  It’s not like some demonic force comes upon you and you do things.  It’s more complex than that as most human behavior is.

 Back to boundaries.  Because we know this is human nature I propose that sometimes we make choices that are really really bad.  In light of that, sometimes boundaries need to be set for us.  I know that I am going to create a space where people are challenged to move past their perception of the world and join a conversation that will hopefully create investment in others' lives that are completely different than their own. 

I think it will be important in these instances to separate the individual from the group in order to truly get to their heart.  The key is in our design. We were designed for relationship.  We were designed to care for people. So if we can put it in terms that people understand, that matter to them, and teach them that it’s our responsibility for everyone to matter then I think we can help people recognize that their perception of reality may not be the only one that matters.