Steve Simms's Blog, page 216

Color or colour or kolor or kolour?

Color, colour, kolor, kolour — no matter how you spell it, it’s a silly way to evaluate human beings. We, us, our, ours! None of us is better or worse, more or less, intelligent or unintelligent, because of our skin color.

Skin color, like flower color, should be a joy. However, humans turned it into the burden of racial conflict and racial injustice. Being unwilling to think or talk about how to heal America’s racial division, won’t make it go away.

Let’s admit that race matters are a problem today because for centuries race mattered and determined a person’s position in society. It’s difficult for a society to get beyond racism, because skin color can’t be hidden. Race shouldn’t be defined by the color of a face.

It takes courage to behave better than the crowd–to look down on no one and to embrace every human being as an equal. Skin color is an insignificant fact, but the concept of race is a dangerous myth that declared a false, color hierarchy. Although color-based race is a myth, its use as the basis for human trafficking and demeaning people, gave it a cruel reality.

Walking alone in a pricey white neighborhood, I realized my privilege to walk there without being suspected of malice because of my skin. Let’s expand the privilege to not be seen as suspicious because of race, to all people!

Think outside the race box. Search for my book: Off the RACE Track–From Color-Blind to Color-Kind. If you want to make a country great, it’s a waste to promote hate.

Self-think & kindly use your freedom of speech

The next time you want to put people in their place, honor them as being made in the image of the living God (even if you disagree with them). When I look at nature, I see marvelous acts of precision engineering, not the random working of time and chance. I feel the say way when I look at human beings!

First word or last word, it doesn’t really matter. I want my words to be true, kind, and insightful.

If I only liked people who agree with me, I wouldn’t be able to have very many friends. I rarely meet someone I don’t like. I’ve discovered that people can disagree and live in great harmony, unless someone involved uses the disagreement as an excuse for unkindness.

If you get riled up when someone disagrees with you, you’re neglecting to appreciate their freedom of speech. If we don’t respect people’s right to disagree with us (without belittling them), then we don’t really believe in freedom.

If you clone other people’s thoughts and views, you’ll never have to stand alone, but your mind might become a stone. Self think.

The real choice of government isn’t political. It’s within. Do you choose to be ruled by your own desires or by the living Jesus? If a country’s people won’t allow their conscience and the living God to minimize the evil in their hearts, any form of government will be corrupt.

Human insignificance is a destructive idea

Concerning the matter of lives, to disrespect any human life in any phase, is to disrespect all human life and the Creator of humanity. It saddens me to hear of any human life being taken, whether by police, gang members, stand your ground advocates, or Planned Parenthood doctors.

The living Jesus tells me that your life matters more than you can imagine. Insignificance is a dangerous and self-destructive concept.

After centuries of the idea that “black lives are insignificant,” it’s good to state the simple truth that “black lives matter.” It’s also good to be reminded that prenatal lives matter, because modern society says that “prenatal lives don’t matter.” That myth needs to be replaced with “all lives matter.”

Pompous like a king

Pride rides,
Pompous like a king,
But it’s such an empty thing,
A meaningless fling.

The humble can honestly be who they really are. The haughty have to keep up their hype. Pompous people seldom laugh if they’re not either intoxicated or insulting someone.

Pomposity makes life a monstrosity. Humility makes room for God’s ability.

Haughtiness about our heritage can hinder our understanding of history by making it hard for us to face uncomfortable truths. History shows that color-pomposity leads to much atrocity. The attitude of superiority has caused humanity many problems. Color-pompousness, even if you think it’s well hidden in your heart, is a form of racism. Check out: Off the RACE Track book.

If you say you follow Jesus, but let yourself get pompous, you’ve gotten off track somewhere along the way. Humility is a great course corrector.

Listen to (I mean read) some of my thoughts about listening

To listen or not to listen? We answer that question many times everyday.

If you could listen to someone who is made in the image of God, would you? Every person you meet presents that opportunity.

Not listening can lead to misunderstanding, anger, and hate, which defun life. Make life fun again. Listen with compassion.

I’ve discovered that when I listen to people and really hear what they’re saying, my heart opens up, wider and wider. As you listen to others, if you silence the intrusive commentary of your own thoughts, you can better understand what they’re saying.

When someone has heard your heart and you see their face full of caring support, it’s life changing. The world needs more people willing to listen to that degree.

Listening to understand is more powerful than listening to debate and refute. Listening to people who disagree with you is rare, but it is educational.

To detect fake news requires diligent fact checking, however, it’s easy to recognize fake listening. If you’re not really listening people will notice and be discouraged and/or disappointed.

Reading is a great way to hear what people have to say. I love to read books by people who lived centuries ago and hear their heart.

Since there’s no guilt for things we didn’t do, we should all be able to freely listen to the parts of our country’s history that we may find uncomfortable. Check out my book: Off the RACE Track–From Color-Blind to Color-Kind. Thank you.

Compassionate listening is healing & exciting!

Has anyone noticed that to rudely berate people over politics, Covid, and race, isn’t making America great? We need love for that! Sincerely listening, with an open heart, is a powerful relationship tool, that is too often unused.

I’ve heard that people like to be listened to. Do you? A failure to communicate often leads to misunderstanding, hatred, and even violence.

You can hear a person’s voice but miss their heart. Try not to do that.

Anyone can listen to and hear another person’s heart, but it takes real courage to do so. People who aren’t afraid have the ability to listen to other people’s opinions without insulting them and to respond with kindness. A great but seldom mentioned fear, is the fear to hear something outside of your comfort zone. When someone rudely tells you, “I’ve heard enough!” what they mean is that they’re scared of what you’re saying.

Being heard is healing. Compassionate conversation is comforting. You can help heal someone’s life, by listening with your heart. Just because you don’t want to hear it, doesn’t mean that something isn’t true.

Presumptive listening assumes that you already know what someone is going to say. If you read between the lines while you’re listening to someone, part of you isn’t listening. However, when you truly hear with compassion, there’s a connection made at a deep level, between you the other person.

It’s hard to listen without giving your opinion, but it’s very educational. Try it sometime.

Sometimes we humans hear what we want to hear, instead of what someone is saying. We think we were listening when we weren’t. Everybody has a story of struggle to tell, but many people have no one willing to hear their story. Will you?

If you won’t regularly listen to people who see things differently than you do, you’ll become addicted to your own opinions. If you won’t truly hear people, you will reject their opinion without even fully knowing what it is.

A narrow mind can hear words, but often their meaning can’t squeeze through. To hear a person’s words but fail to hear his heart (and/or the meaning of what he’s saying) is to ignore. It’s hard being ignored. It’s also hard to love people who say things you don’t want to hear and/or do things you don’t want them to. Love them anyway.

The belief that someone who disagrees with you must be misled, is misleading. Boldly confronting someone may stir up your adrenaline and satisfy your anger, but compassionately listing is more effective. Verbally threatening people is ineffective communication and almost always stirs up more hostility and sometimes even violence.

Kindness listens and sincerely tries to understand. Cruelty refuses to hear and gets angry, making no effort to understand. A listening ear is good, but a heart that is willing to humbly hear is better.

When someone tells you that your words don’t add up, it may be because they don’t fit in their comfortable equation.

The freedom of speech morphs into hostility, anger, and bullying, unless the speaker is also willing to hear and to understand. To use your freedom of speech to try to intimidate others into silence, is hypocrisy. Love that won’t listen and a heart that won’t hear, both are an oxymoron. Love cares about people enough to compassionately hear them.

When people are desperate to be heard, to brush them aside with platitudes, accusations, or anger, is cruel. When we choose to see people as a threat, our defensiveness makes us unable to hear their heart and to respond with kindness. However, if you listen to people with an open heart, you can find something to care about in their story.

If we’re unwilling to hear what we don’t want to hear, our opinions will always be based more on our desires than on truth. To reject someone’s opinion before you try to understand it, is prejudice. Instead of trying to make people say what you want to hear, sincerely listen to what they have to say.

It’s difficult to convince people of the love of Jesus, if Christians won’t hear their hurt and show them God’s compassion. I say, “This way.” You say, “That way.” Jesus says, “I am the Way.” Perhaps we both need to listen to and obey Him. I hear Jesus’ rivers of living water flowing within me. I feel their current carrying me with joy, peace, and love. It’s amazing!

I’ve learned that if I’ll listen to people with my heart wide open, learn a lot and experience amazing connections. Here are some examples: 1) I sold black history books door-to-door two summers. The things I heard changed my life and I’ve never been the same. 2) As a counselor in a drug and alcohol rehab, I listened individually to about 1,400 men. It was an amazing education. 3) I spent 3 months in India, briefly seeing only one other white person one time. What I heard filled me with love for Indians. 4) As a motivational speaker for 12 years, I would listen to my clients and learn as much as I could about their industry so that I could better connect with their employees or members. 5) As officers/pastors with The Salvation Army for 10 years, my wife and I didn’t preach, but let people listen to each other share. Listening with compassion is powerful!

If you would like to compassionately learn more about America’s racial situation, check out this link.

Care, connection, & community are better than divisiveness

Even when minds disagree, open hearts find much unity and love. Closed hearts, however, succumb to anger and hostility. I’ve conversed with and listened to people of many different ethnicities. When I do, I’m always amazed at how similar we are.

It’s dangerous for politicians to revel in insulting and hateful rhetoric without regard for the consequences of their rambling. To support unkindness and bullying in politics is to approve of it.

The more people boo each other, the closer they get to a boom in their society that leaves everyone in pain. Wake up your heart. Let it care deeply for the people who disagree with you. Speak truth, but do it with kindness and respect. Open hearts will automatically connect with each other.

Some people act like their mission is to cause division. Too often, people who say their beliefs are good, are willing to say and do bad things to people who disagree with their beliefs. Differences between people become a problem when they’re mixed with slander and accusation.

Pride puffs up the mind. Love and openness tenderize the heart. The pride in people collides. The love in people embraces. The mind analyzes and divides. The heart cares and connects.

The number of things that all people share in common are massive. Although the number of things that divide us are minimal, we tend to focus on them. Most of the divisiveness in this world has been built on propaganda and illusion.

My people are the human race. The risen Jesus makes me love everybody. You can see your group as separate from other groups of people, or you can see your group as a small part of humanity.

When Christians divide over politics, it means that one side or the other (or both) has put politics ahead of the living Jesus. Christ-followers belong to the same Jesus. If we humbly follow and obey Him, there’s unity. If we don’t, divisiveness is rampant.

Instead of calling people working for racial justice “Marxists,” perhaps Christians should jump in and lead the way to healing. We need to boldly address the harsh, uncomfortable facts of history without accessing present-day blame, because people alive today had nothing to do with the events of 80 (or more) years ago. No person alive today created America’s racial divide, but anybody can be a bridge builder. Check out my book: Off the RACE Track.

Freedom, mental health, & hope

Mental and emotional bondage restricts freedom. Freedom that doesn’t reach to your mind and your heart is incomplete. It’s good to celebrate freedom. It’s better to live free — without bondage to thoughts, feelings, or desires.

It’s hard to dance with joy when disappointment, anger, and unforgiveness hold your feet to the ground. People who faithfully self-destruct betray their own happiness. To abandon your conscience is like driving a car with no breaks–you can go fast, but you may not be able to stop. Often the worst tyranny is internal–cravings, compulsions, fear, depression, worry, anxiety, hate, pride, obsessions, guilt, etc.

To abandon hope is to go overboard, into a sea of despair. Instead, abandon thoughts that torment you. Take your mind away from them and don’t look back. Freedom isn’t just a proclamation. It’s a life lived beyond the bondage of tormenting feelings and thoughts.

The living Jesus offers people bondage-breaking freedom from tormenting feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. Jesus taught that knowing the truth brings freedom. Fact checking with humility can set us free from deception.

Genuine love is liberating because it takes your mind off yourself and focuses it on someone else. The undercurrents of evil are continually active in the human heart, but freely flowing with the inner rivers of Jesus brings liberty. A joyful heart discovers daily delights.

I believe that when Christians meet, the absence of a prearranged agenda can allow for the presence of Jesus to lead us. However, the internal Jesus stirring your heart is far more powerful than external Christian meetings ever can be.

History beyond the myths

Like the Pharisees, we can miss what God’s doing in our time, because of our religion. Looking beyond our myths can help us avoid their mistake.

Myths and statues have been used as cover-ups in an ongoing attempt to make historical injustice look honorable. It’s hard to abandon familiar myths that deform the past, especially when they shield us from uncomfortable realities. However, we can’t be honest about history unless we abandon myths, distortions, cover-ups, gloss-overs, and outright lies.

To disrespect other people while expecting them to respect you, is to live in a dark, fantasy world. Freedom of speech is a two-way street. It means that people who we disagree with also have the right to declare their views.

If we disrespect people’s humanity because of their belief or allegiance, we don’t fully value human life.

Race doesn’t have to be so puzzling.
Unscramble the simplicity
Of skin color.

Examining the Declaration of Independence

Investigating independence
With an honest eye,
Reveals that the beautiful document
That declares freedom from tyranny
And the self-evident truths
Of equality for all and inalienable rights,
Left about 700,000 human beings,
Amazing men, women, and children,
Completely out of the self-evident
And took away their inalienable rights,
By subjecting them to the life-long
Tyranny of human trafficking.

For more light on American history, click here.