More often than we would like to admit. We have seen many members of our communities become dissatisfied with their religious/spiritual upbringing. Due to their dissatisfaction with their congregations. As humans, we tend to overgeneralize groups of races, tribes, and ethnicities. Assuming that if one person is like this, all of the members who belong to that category, in which we overgeneralize, must also be the same. We discourage our readers from framing a perspective of the world in this manner because, in doing so, we tend to neglect the core fundamentals that all religions or spiritual movements aim to achieve in their teachings.
Jesus often rebuked the spiritual leaders of His day. He gave us insight into how to view such leaders, and He gave us the discipline in how to manage our thoughts regarding such matters. But instead of judgment, we encourage our readers to become the person they would like to see in the world. When we overgeneralize, we harm many without knowing it. We cause damage to many without realizing the error of our words.
For a long time, many members of our team were frustrated with what we were witnessing in the world. But we realize that many of these frustrations stemmed solely from the very notion of what we allowed our minds to consume. We glued ourselves to mainstream and social media, and we were obsessed with doom-scrolling the likes of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, 9Gag, and various YouTube shorts.
We soon realized we were making ourselves discontented, dissatisfied, and existential, and we felt hopeless. We realized that the Internet can be weaponized to cause mass hysteria in those who cannot set aside their phones to pick up a book, exercise, or eat a healthy, well-balanced diet.
We started overgeneralizing everyone and everything based on what we consumed through television and our cell phones. Assuming that if a member of this particular organization or political party is like this, they must all be like this. This kind of thinking was chaotic. For we realized that in doing such things, we became the very hate-filled people whom we were judging. This place of misguided judgment came from social media content or news-generated clips we were consuming. In doing so, we became the very thing which we were supposedly against.
Paul did not get everything right, nor do we tend to agree with some of his words regarding the status of women. But the words in which Paul described how to process such judgment could not be written any better. (Romans 2)
For when we judge, we must carefully consider that we ourselves may have been at fault for errors or mistakes we were unaware of at the time. Instead, we consider our readers to grant mercy to those who may not hold your particular ways of looking at the world.
For the world is filled with balance, even if we are unable to perceive it when we consume that which frames our perspectives.
Every day, there are those who instill and radiate immense courage without harming anyone by becoming a lighthouse to those who are afraid. For this, courage is found all over the world, and the seed of righteousness is planted everywhere within it.
For although Paul was a murderous man who persecuted Christians. Although David was a war-minded man. Although Job suffered through tremendous loss. Although Ester witnessed the destruction of her people. For those who are in tune with things unbeknownst to the naked eye, they were still granted mercy and protection even in the midst of their mistakes and faults. For those who know themselves. No amount of fear or anxiety will come near us when we understand it is our Creator who carefully guides our steps and gives us the instinct of discernment and love.
We must not become hate-filled because we examine the world through such a lens of news or social media. Such devices displace our minds far away from the balance in which everything operates all at once.
If we were able to witness the millions of generous acts that happen daily. We would mathematically understand that the infinite possibilities one generous act of humanity may create has the potential to ripple across space and time in the twinkle of an eye.
We must become the patrons and members of the society in which we desire to see. We need not equip ourselves with weapons of war, for such endeavors only cause cyclical repetition. For yes, although we are fearful, anxious, and afraid, we are also loved, protected, nourished, and set apart for something beyond ourselves and our upbringing.
For we must not become judges, but instead become doers of His commands. Which were to express love to one another without judgment and without selfishness.
When we overgeneralize, we blind ourselves to millions of potentialities that already exist beyond our human comprehension through everyday acts of kindness that aren’t displayed in the media we consume. Miracles happen every single day. For acts of generosity are also born by those whom we would never expect to possess such energies.
For we know that when a group or race is hated by others and considered evil without cause. We know when an entire ethnicity is blamed for societal problems without reason, horrible circumstances arise from ignorance and overgeneralization.
We must not overgeneralize anything or anyone, including political parties or religious/spiritual groups. For African Americans, the Jewish and Muslim communities have been overgeneralized, Asian communities have been overgeneralized after Pearl Harbor, Native Americans, and, as much as the LGBTQAI+ community and the Atheist community, all have been overgeneralized. Must we allow ourselves to believe in such mathematical equations by believing that the root cause of every person, in which we overgeneralize, arrives at the same focal point?
Great change comes through us individually, and yet we become angry and discontent in such equations by trying to force solutions instead of exemplifying withour selves what we desire from others.
We become the very monsters we supposedly oppose when we overgeneralize anyone belonging to groups that we believe are that much different than “us.”
For when we blame MAGA or Christians or Muslims or Atheists or anyone for anything. We are no different than the group itself. One group blames this group, while deeming itself perfect. We must not point fingers. But instead, we must with all our minds, hearts, spirits, and souls be guided by the Holy Spirit that no man or woman is able to comprehend or contextualize. We must become the person we desire to see. We must follow acts of righteousness, mercy, and forgiveness. Only then will we be able to witness for ourselves the mysteries of Heaven and the gifts they give to those who are called for such purposes.
We must be in constant prayer. Praying for those who do us a disservice just as Jesus commanded us. For when we understand the infinite possibilities that one act of generosity can generate in the course of 24 hours. We see the ripple and become the ripple.
We will become dissatisfied with the world we see if we continue down the path of consuming that which dissatisfies our truest nature of possessing inner grace. We will see, witness, and give testimony to the wonders of the world when we become what we desire in the world. Only when we allow ourselves to let go of what we want from the world. And become what we desire in the world. For we are powerless until we relinquish control of that in which we hold no power.
-I Am Humans