Hurt Feelings or Offended
What’s up everybody? Scotty here. I’ve got my ride for a reason custom cup that I’m rocking this morning with my coffee in it thanks to Chase Harrison, The Cup Guy, for this awesome cup. Totally unique to me and for me, so thank you Chase. Today, I just had to come on, and I don’t know how long this is going to even last, I don’t even know. I know somewhat where this is going to go, but I don’t know exactly where this is going to go, it’s just something that was on my heart and mind yesterday, and it was hard to go to sleep. I don’t know why it hit me, but it did, so I’m going to talk about it today.
What I want to talk about is this culture that has been created where we as men, women, humans, are so dang easily offended, or our feelings are hurt. Okay, there’s a big difference between someone who’s had a injustice done to them, someone who’s really been the victim of something. Hurt feelings and offended, granted, warranted. I get it. But it’s this thing where all of a sudden we’ve turned into these soft skinned, thin skinned sissies, that we can’t handle a joke or we can’t handle a comment that isn’t 100% complimentary. So, one of the things I want to talk about was … I realize that this section of the book this week was the Man Up for Future Generations, and I guess this kind of does apply to this.
The thing I want to talk about had to do more with faith. I’m not one that I’m going to shove something down somebody’s throat. I’m not going to. I will talk about it, I will discuss it, I will share it, but I’m certainly not going to put you in handcuffs and try and make you believe what I believe. That’s your choice. That’s the beautiful thing about how we’re created. We’re created with a mind to figure things out and to make a choice. But here’s the thing that irritates me. When you have someone who gets offended because somebody else shares their faith with them. It’s just like, “Okay, wait a second. Let’s take a step back and think about this.” You have someone who is putting their neck out, who is risking disapproval, who is risking someone looking down on them, who is risking looking goofy, for lack of a better word, in order to share something with someone that they evidently care about and care for.
Let’s put all of the thoughts about whether or not religion is real and whether or not that even is a fact. Let’s just put that aside from all of this, because quite honestly, it really doesn’t matter when I’m talking about this piece. It does matter in the end, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t really matter for this piece. When you have someone that they believe deeply that there is a heaven and a hell, and they see you doing something that they believe, according to their faith and what they believe would not allow you to get into heaven but would send you to hell, let’s just talk about that for a second. If they didn’t care about you, they wouldn’t talk to you about it, but if they do care about you and they do come up to you and say, “I want to share something with you.” To me, I would look at that and go, “Fair enough. You care enough about me to actually risk me shutting you out, doing whatever, to share this with me.”
I don’t understand where people feel this is an insult, where people feel this is an affront to who they are. Maybe you’re just not secure enough in what you believe yourself. Maybe you don’t believe it for yourself, you believe it because your parents believed it. Okay, let’s just talk about Merry Christmas. It’s no different. If somebody comes up to you and says, “Merry Christmas,” with a smile on their face and a handshake and you get pissed. Tell you what, if somebody walked up to with a smile and a handshake and said, “Happy Hanukkah,” I know nothing about that, but I would probably respond with, “Well, thank you, and happy Hanukkah to you too,” because they were being kind. They were extending an effort to either communicate, start a relationship, whatever that looks like, they were making an effort.
So, this piece where people … and for me it’s Merry Christmas, that’s what it is for me. I will not apologize and I will not stop saying it, because when I say that to someone, it’s not me saying, “I hope you’re a Christian. If you’re not you’re a heathen and you’re going to hell.” It’s me saying, “This is a great time of year. I’m in a great mood and I’m happy for what I believe in and what time of year represents. I want to share my joy with you by saying merry Christmas.” That’s what I’m saying. We get people who I just can’t wrap my head around why they get offended with this. I don’t care what religion it is or what holiday it is that people get so upset about when somebody gives them a will and a warm wish for the day. Blows my freaking mind.
So, let’s talk about this whole sharing your faith thing. Okay, so let’s break this down a little bit even more. Let’s say I am watching TV and I see on the news that there’s a bridge out. Now, they don’t show anything, but they just say, “Interstate 94,” or, “Interstate 35W, there’s a bridge out right before the University of Minnesota.” They don’t show any pictures, they don’t show anything to corroborate that, they just say there’s a bridge out. I say, “Oh, there’s a bridge out.” I learn that Brenda is going to be traveling 35W and heading towards that bridge that’s supposedly out. Do I wait for absolute proof. “I can’t say anything to Brenda yet because I need 100% irrefutable, concrete, touch it myself proof that that bridge is indeed out.” Would I wait for that? No, I would call Brenda right away and try to get ahold of her cell phone, do whatever I could to get ahold of her to warn her, “Watch out, that bridge is out. I don’t want anything to happen to you.” I would at least hope I would do that.
I would be calling all of my friends, I’d be doing a Facebook Live saying, “Hey, any of my friends that are driving up 35W, this bridge is out. Be careful. Don’t die.” So, when you think about it, that’s something I’m taking on faith, that this bridge is out. I’m responding to people that I care about, I’m talking to people that I care about, to try and save them from having an accident and going off this bridge. I’m acting on faith, I’m not acting on proof. So, when you have someone that shares faith with you, whatever that faith is, I don’t care whether it’s Christianity, whether it’s the Jewish faith, whatever the faith is. When they share it with you, nine times … no, can it be done incorrectly and judgmentally? Oh yeah, it sure can. Trust me, I’ve had it done and there’s nothing more irritating. So, it can be done that way, but when it’s done the right way because somebody truly cares about you, loves you and wants the best for you, is acting on faith because they believe the bridge is out for you when it comes to faith, and they don’t want you to crash and die. Why is that such an affront? Why is that such an insult to people?
I just don’t get … like I said, I don’t care what faith it is, if somebody comes up to me and they’re a hearty Christian and they come to me and they say, “Hey man, I want to share something with you because I care about you and I love you.” If I truly feel that they love me and they care about me, you know what? I am a Christian, I’m strong in my faith and I’m strong in my beliefs, and I will not apologize for it, but I will sit down and I will listen to that person with respect. I don’t have to agree with them. We’ve lost this piece of, for whatever reason, we think if we don’t agree with someone else, that there’s this lack of respect or that we can’t get along. We can’t be together. Quite honestly, it pisses me off.
That’s really what the Map Up piece in this is. The Man Up piece is to encourage people to care for people, to be strong in who you are and why you are, but you don’t put anybody else down for who they are, no. If I believe something, and … okay, so, here’s the thing. If somebody is not sharing their faith, and again, doesn’t matter what faith you believe in, but if you’re not sharing that faith … because if you look at most of the religions and most of the faiths, they all have this piece of salvation type of thing. You have to do something to get something. If you’re not sharing your faith, I’ll challenge it this way. Do you really believe? Are you really convicted in what you believe? Because if you were, if you were truly convicted as a Christian, I’m going to state that because I am one and I know that, if you were truly convicted as a Christian that if I don’t talk to you and I don’t share the good news with you, share salvation through Christ with you, that you will go to hell. If you truly believed that, why wouldn’t I share it?
You know why I wouldn’t share it? I wouldn’t share it if I doubted it. I wouldn’t share it if I wasn’t sure myself. So, when I have someone who shares with me, don’t care what the religion is, what the faith is, but when they share that with me, that tells me they’re strong in their faith, they’re strong in their convictions. I don’t have to agree with it, I don’t have to buy into it myself, and I may share my counter point of view with them. But it’s not such a bad thing. People need to quit worrying about being so damn politically correct, so damn thin skinned, and so easily offended and hurt. You know why people get easily offended and hurt? Because it’s all about themselves. That’s the other piece of this. This whole piece of Man Up is it’s not about me. It’s not about myself. It’s about other people.
Manning up is putting other people in front of yourself, putting your family, your wife, your kids, putting other things first. Not that you forget about yourself. You take care of yourself, you take care of your stuff, after everybody else’s stuff is taken care of. That’s what it is. So, sorry guys, I had to … I don’t know why. That was on my mind today, and that was something that I was thinking about. So, if you don’t agree, comment below. I’d love to hear why. I love a chance for discussion, for adult discussion on this type of topic. I will not engage childish discussion or ranting just for the sake to rant, or putting somebody down because of what they believe. I will not tolerate that. If you want to put that on the page then I’ll delete it. I won’t even engage it. But those who would like to discuss it, I love a good respectful debate. I really don’t know if there’s anything to debate on this topic though, because it’s just kind of common sense to me. If you don’t feel that’s common sense, let me know. All right, guys. Y’all take care. Have a good rest of the day.