Brookings Register | Be motivated by love - Brookings Register

The other day, my 12-year-old son suffered a sprained wrist and thumb from an accident at school.

Since then, he has been wearing a splint. However, being 12 and a little fidgety, he often takes the splint off and forgets to replace it.

Inevitably, he will bump his injured hand on something and cry out in pain. When this happens, we encourage him to replace the splint and consider keeping it on to avoid adding stress to his injury.

My son’s reaction is not unique. Each of us tends to cry out when we suffer stress or pain.

These can come from a variety of sources: the performance of our favorite sports team, friends, coworkers, family, politics, religion, work, illness…the list goes on and on.

In today’s world, it seems like the greatest stress in society comes as one individual’s views, beliefs, and culture come into opposition and sometimes conflict with another’s. In this stress test of differing views, our society has an unfortunate, if natural, tendency toward contention and divisiveness.

Just look at responses in our own community to the COVID-19 pandemic. Heated debates have taken place in Brookings County surrounding the use of masks, quarantine and vaccinations.

Some people are adamant that these measures are the answer to the pandemic problem, while others cry out in anger and frustration that masks don’t solve anything, mask mandates are unconstitutional, and vaccines are unsafe or ineffective. In the exchange of beliefs and ideas, too often respect and loving concern for the wellbeing and safety of ourselves and others give way to animosity, fear, and even enmity.

I am struck by the Bible teaching that love and fear cannot exist in the same heart at the same time. Love leads to respect and friendship. Love recognizes that each person has intrinsic worth and value that cannot be diminished by where that person comes from, what they look like, or what they believe.

Love is what motivates the incredible philanthropy that I have long noticed in the Brookings community. And behind it all is God, for God is love (1 John 4:8).

If we are motivated by love for each other, we will cease to fear.

As we put aside fear, we will also put aside religious and political differences in order to build our community, assuage grief and sorrow, and bring hope to the hopeless, peace to the anxious, and comfort to the lonely.

I hope we will all decide to say to one another about our irreconcilable differences, “I can see we are not going to agree on this. That is OK. I love you. I respect you. Let’s set those issues aside and focus on what we have in common.” If we look hard enough, we will see that we share common ground with everyone, no matter how small the acreage may be. Let us celebrate our diversity while we build our unity and work together in harmony.

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October 07, 2021 at 11:35PM
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Brookings Register | Be motivated by love - Brookings Register
"love" - Google News
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