“..You shall love your
neighbor as yourself (Mt.22:39).”
I think I have come up with a phenomenally good idea for a Christian
ministry endeavor that would have an impact no matter who you are and where you
live. So here’s my revolutionary idea:
be nice to people. I’ve noticed and I’m
sure you have too, that people seem ruder now than they used to be. This isn’t just a notion or something that is
causing my “Spidey-sense” to tingle today, but a truth that has come into focus
through several research groups. One
group called People’s Agenda did an extensive poll of American adults and found
that 79% of them consider people’s lack of courtesy a major national problem. Two thirds of those responding said rudeness
in people was getting worse. Some 200
customer service representatives were studied by Penn State University and it was found that many of
them are yelled at up to 50 times a day.
70% of those in the study said they found their own politeness was
quickly shelved when customers became testy and adversarial. Rudeness and combativeness are considered the
number one problem by those who serve people in the travel industry. Now you and I both know there is another side
of this story that space will not allow, but the point I’m making here is that
we have an opportunity to season our culture with God’s generosity and kindness
in all of our public (and private) interactions. Jesus tells us to love our neighbors with the
same love we quite naturally have for ourselves. At this point in our national history it
sounds like living the “golden rule” would really be noticed.
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