The World Needs More Nice…

As I was driving home from work the other day, I saw a billboard that said, “The world needs more Nice” and while it was likely an advertisement, it spoke a reality worth thinking about. What has gone wrong with people that has caused them to be so damn hateful? Is it the advent of the Internet? Is it the society in which we live or the current political climate? Or is it the natural consequence of a world mired in negativity and unmet needs? Whatever it is, the world definitely needs more “nice.”

Social media seems to have spurned an environment of unparalleled cynicism or at minimum revealed it. Someone posts a problem they’re experiencing and it’s dismissed as a cry for attention. Someone else posts about the good that is happening in their lives and it is met with harsh criticism, as if it cannot be true or else it is a gross misrepresentation. Really? The question to be answered doesn’t point back to the poster, but instead points to the hearts of the critics. What went so badly in your life or what unresolved issue do you harbor that made your heart so hard? What matter is it with you whether some person seeks attention. Why not give them the attention? If they boast of good times and happiness, shouldn’t you rather be happy for them? If their words exaggerate, God bless them for it must be better to exaggerate happiness than magnify negativity! The issue isn’t them, it is you…

The internet offers the world at your fingertips. You have the power to beat down and to lift up. Why not lift up? If you have been a person long enough, you know the trials and tribulations that accompany life. You know what it’s like to suffer heartache and loss. You know how hard it is to overcome certain issues in your life. You likely know how infrequent are your successes and in so knowing ought to rejoice when they happen for others. Your victories in life come not at the expense of other people and when you win it shouldn’t have to be because someone else has lost. If your life is so sad that the only way you rise is to cause others to fall, you need to ask yourself some serious questions! Your computer keyboard, though seemingly anonymous, is not really anonymous as the things you say point to who you really are…

The political climate in which we live is particularly arduous, but when hasn’t it been? If you look to the world for your happiness, you will be waiting for a long time. The world, or I should say the systems of the world, are not designed to make you happy. They are designed to engulf you in a perpetual misery until you finally concede there is no way to escape. But, there is a way to escape and it’s not found in the ways of the world. It’s found in kindness, in compassion, in love… It’s found in seeking to make the world a little bit softer for your brother; a little easier to navigate. It’s found in answers of peace and the promise of better days ahead. It’s found in hope for the future and in learning a superior way. It’s found in God and His Word with restoration, forgiveness, healing and love. Don’t waste your time and your life trying to repair the evil, but instead do good and be good. What your brother needs from you is a break, a chance, an opportunity for a fresh start. If you are going to type something, give him that…

It is a sad testimony that most folks are typically negative. It’s not so much their fault as they find themselves living in a negative society that feeds on what has gone wrong. People are so accustomed to what is wrong that they expect it or incredulously question when good happens to someone else. The good that you enjoy cannot be real good because of the shortage of goodness in their own lives. And instead of seeking the source of your happiness they choose rather to discount your happiness as artificial because of their conditioning concerning what is wrong, or could go wrong, or will likely turn out wrong. Two or three wrongs do not make a right no matter how many times you may have heard it. What makes something right is a change of heart. It is the honest recognition that when life sucks something is wrong and most often wrong in the heart of the sufferer. The purpose of suffering, if there is such a thing, is to encourage you to look outside yourself for the answer. It is to acknowledge that there just might be something you need to learn or understand. It is not to strengthen the walls of your heart in defiance, but instead to tear down those walls with heartfelt humility, expecting a different result.

Somewhere, somehow, we have been talked into a futility. We think that unmet needs are normal; that prayer is just an exercise for the soul; that solutions don’t really exist unless you are lucky or some other unexplainable nebulism. But, solutions do exist. Don’t make your heart harder by tearing others down, but instead seek your own solution. Find out what made your heart so hard. Find out why it feels better to tear down than to build up and make an earnest effort to build up. With all that you are and with all that you can ever be, find out how to make your heart tender again, like the one you had before the world kicked your ass. Be vulnerable. Take the risk. Offer your heart to others counting on the fact that they also have a heart and if your blessing is unrequited, bless them anyway. Love people as you would want to be loved. Forgive people understanding what a stinker you have been at times. Be a listening ear, a source of compassion, a place where judgment is suspended. That’s what people need. They have enough of the criticism, but they haven’t had enough of your love. The world needs more “nice” brothers and sisters and it all starts with you! Be nice…

Just some good thoughts…