Dear Editor,
In a country rife with bigotry like Jamaica is there any hope for peace? Will there ever be a time in which any man can freely traverse the island from one end to the other without fear of persecution because of political, social and other trivial examples of discrimination?
How hard is it for someone as an individual to accept that there is no control over the actions of the persons around you, and even if the the person you once grew with suddenly adopts a new persona/lifestyle is that person any different from the one you knew from before? Listen to your voice of reason!
Is it necessary that we live in a world filled with religious disputes, fights over dispensable and temporary things? It is needless to live our daily lives whilst concerning ourselves with the day to day happenings of out fellow man when we rarely even relay or deliver good thoughts to the other. You speak of prophecies and wonders of your various Gods, yet have any of their messengers or prophets condoned the judging of others? A favourite saying of mine goes "It is better to find a single fault within yourself than a million in others" implying that you need not concern yourselves with the faults or misgivings of others when you blatantly outright ignore the ones in yourselves, which I myself am also a culprit.
We continuously make it our daily mantra to change our fellow man without ever trying to modify ourselves, change is inevitable and nothing can stop progress only inhibit it. You continue to persecute your fellow man imposing upon him the word of God, using only what you see is necessary then ignoring the other essential parts.
A bible verse that I never once before understood has started to take form over the past few years, St Matthew 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify thy father which is in heaven." This one verse speaks volumes to the life of others. How can you call yourself a Christian when all you do is persecute and judge, when the bible, the word of God tells you that you must let your light shine?
Light in this form referring to your life, the greatest testimonies of all times the ones that actually reach out and touch the hearts of many are those which speak about living a life for Christ, especially when they at one point were at the edge where most Christians would fall into abyss. Don't be offended when I say that these are at times more realistic and sincere than most of the testimonies that you hear from the persons who are always in church or always on the "mission". Yet even so, these persons who continue to persecute and attack while unnecessarily proclaiming the voice of God and using the Bible to justify their actions forget that the other side knows the Bible as well and even surprisingly in some cases better than their persecutors.
So what to do about this situation you may ask? The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, therefore if you intend to change the world the first step is to change yourself. The first step is always the hardest, that's why the constant persecution of others gets you nowhere. The life you want to live and the life intended for you are two different things. Destiny is nothing more than the constant hopes and beliefs of the persons around us pushing towards a greater goal. Therefore to change the world or even Jamaica, we must continue to press forward despite the elements around us.
Jordn-Micheal McCarthy
jmickmac06@gmail.com
Check yourself before you check others
-->
In a country rife with bigotry like Jamaica is there any hope for peace? Will there ever be a time in which any man can freely traverse the island from one end to the other without fear of persecution because of political, social and other trivial examples of discrimination?
How hard is it for someone as an individual to accept that there is no control over the actions of the persons around you, and even if the the person you once grew with suddenly adopts a new persona/lifestyle is that person any different from the one you knew from before? Listen to your voice of reason!
Is it necessary that we live in a world filled with religious disputes, fights over dispensable and temporary things? It is needless to live our daily lives whilst concerning ourselves with the day to day happenings of out fellow man when we rarely even relay or deliver good thoughts to the other. You speak of prophecies and wonders of your various Gods, yet have any of their messengers or prophets condoned the judging of others? A favourite saying of mine goes "It is better to find a single fault within yourself than a million in others" implying that you need not concern yourselves with the faults or misgivings of others when you blatantly outright ignore the ones in yourselves, which I myself am also a culprit.
We continuously make it our daily mantra to change our fellow man without ever trying to modify ourselves, change is inevitable and nothing can stop progress only inhibit it. You continue to persecute your fellow man imposing upon him the word of God, using only what you see is necessary then ignoring the other essential parts.
A bible verse that I never once before understood has started to take form over the past few years, St Matthew 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify thy father which is in heaven." This one verse speaks volumes to the life of others. How can you call yourself a Christian when all you do is persecute and judge, when the bible, the word of God tells you that you must let your light shine?
Light in this form referring to your life, the greatest testimonies of all times the ones that actually reach out and touch the hearts of many are those which speak about living a life for Christ, especially when they at one point were at the edge where most Christians would fall into abyss. Don't be offended when I say that these are at times more realistic and sincere than most of the testimonies that you hear from the persons who are always in church or always on the "mission". Yet even so, these persons who continue to persecute and attack while unnecessarily proclaiming the voice of God and using the Bible to justify their actions forget that the other side knows the Bible as well and even surprisingly in some cases better than their persecutors.
So what to do about this situation you may ask? The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, therefore if you intend to change the world the first step is to change yourself. The first step is always the hardest, that's why the constant persecution of others gets you nowhere. The life you want to live and the life intended for you are two different things. Destiny is nothing more than the constant hopes and beliefs of the persons around us pushing towards a greater goal. Therefore to change the world or even Jamaica, we must continue to press forward despite the elements around us.
Jordn-Micheal McCarthy
jmickmac06@gmail.com
Check yourself before you check others
-->