Yesterday, I saw a bumper sticker which simply said, "Read". I've never been a bumper sticker person, but I thought: "That's one I could get behind." (or in front of, as the case would be).
I was thinking today of two other bumper stickers that could go with it, but with the three in this order: "Pray, Read, Love."
"Pray". If you don't believe in Christ, pray to the God of Adam and Moses and Abraham. If you don't believe in God, pray to the benevolent ancestors. Or put good thoughts into the universe.
"Read". I'm not telling you to read whole books if you don't want to. But let's not just get all of our information from one TV station or from whatever memes and sound bytes happen to come across our phone screens. Maybe it's reading a daily devotion in a devotional book. Maybe it's reading history or historical fiction. Maybe it's reading articles. Just, let's be an educated people who read (and believe it or not, even as an avid reader and writer, I sometimes have to remind myself to do a little more of this and a little less scrolling).
"Love". No, I'm not saying you have to have a working relationship with everyone. But it has been a whole lot of hate that has caused a whole lot of our problems...in history and now. What if we could overcome the hate with love?
How we love is going to look different for each of us. It's not for any of us to tell the rest of us how we need to do that. But one start is to "do no harm". Along the lines of "do no harm", I will also not verbally or tacitly excuse any harm. If I can't stop it, I will speak against it, even if I can only do it quietly now and then.
I might add, "Hope". If we don't like the way some things are going (and I'm one of those who doesn't like the way some things are going), let's keep up hope. If we look at history, things often turn around. But we have to have enough people with love to get things turned around.
For those who believe in the New Testament, St. Paul said "Faith, hope, love" (or "charity", depending on the translation)..."and the greatest of these is love."
So, I guess I actually have two slogans here: "Pray, read, love" and "Faith, hope, love". If enough of us have true abiding love - if we fill the universe with love! - a love that fights evil - a love that pours itself out on as many people as possible, we can turn things around. It probably won't be overnight. But I believe it can happen...again...as it has so many times in history.
