Words interest me.
This past week, a dear friend used the word “frenemy” in a discussion about the world situation now existing in the Ukraine. Then, before bed last night I read a post on social media reminding us that Jesus told us to pray for our enemies.
Also, close to bedtime, I watched a YouTube video of thought/facts/opinions expression by a commentator some friends have seemingly told me I should hate, or at least, fully discount.
Without naming this commentater, whose views, like any others, are formed from tainted perspective and a mix of factual and/or skewed facts or potentially, outright lies…I just Googled one of the things mentioned in the YouTube, to verify, and it does appear that in fact, Miss Grand Ukraine has not joined the military to fight alongside women, but rather, whatever transpired on social media recently was simply to inspire.
While we could name this type of inspiration by another word, I don’t think using that word is helpful here, since whatever process some, apparently, became virally engulfed into through this one small puzzle piece, should be self-evident. That does not mean that every other statement or observation made by this one news commentater should have no need of fact-and-bias checking. It only means that I made time to sample this one thing.
And by the way, we are all biased.
To be a human being, is to be inherently biased.
It is no wonder that when I awoke briefly after my second sleep cycle (generally human sleep cycles are about 1.5 hours in length, and end with a quick REM dream state and then a brief awakening we often do not recall. Those who sometimes need to visit the bathroom or sip some water or wet their dry-eye eyeballs during a night’s sleep, tend to use this state of being half awake and half asleep to do these thing(s).
I felt my mind was busy during the night’s multiple series of sleep cycles/dream states – no doubt processing some thoughts I had. They were oddly fresh and somewhat “loud” in my brief moments of waking, before dozing back into the next deep sleep cycle…
Etymology: A portmanteau of the words “friend” and “enemy,” frenemy is thought to have been coined in 1953 when American gossip columnist Walter Winchell suggested applying it to the fraught relationship between Russia and the United States.
Word: Frenemy
Of course, once fully awake, it was hard to recall my exact thoughts during the night. They were more specific, but I will now speak generally.
I am feeling like we are increasingly being told by the experts whom we should hate.
Whose voice in our nation or the world is so 100% tainted that they, as another fellow, thoughtful human being, have absolutely 0% of anything of value to bring to the table of dialogue in the most weightiest of world manners?
I could name people we are being told to discount in the news arenas, but maybe that would detract from my expression here, rather than enhance what I am attempting to communicate.
Instead, let us consider the first person (public figure) who comes to mind as 100% dismissable in any of the following named categories:
- racist
- vulgar
- leftist
- white trash
- anti-vaxxer
- religious zealot
- conservative
- war monger
- peacenik
- disinformed
- liar
- propagandist
- educated
- uneducated
- ignorant
- socialist
- communist
- aggressive
- coward
- moral
- immoral
- hypocrite
- selfish
- narcissistic
- out-of-touch
- bubbled
- violent
- evil
- enemy
- friend
- ally
- right
- wrong
- peaceful
- ill-willed
- ill-informed
- brainwashed
- sociopathic
- dictator
- bully
- diplomat
- deceptive
- transparent
- trustworthy
- untrustworthy
- competent
- caring
- uncaring
- biased
- unbiased
- EXPERT
I am thinking this list could go on and on and on…
but for the moment,
can I add myself to the list and can I add you to the list?
Please hear me out.
Since we now seem to be fully entrenched into
the “call-out-and-cancel” culture, I must ask,
who will call me out?
And, who will call you out?
Or, is there yet a third way other than shouting each other into silence, labeling one another into irrelevance?
It seems we are now engulfed in so much competing propaganda, that it is hard to first, know facts, and secondly, properly assemble the facts.
Any signs of censorship in a free society should be triggering every dystopian alarm bell there is, and in the current climate of everyone either being propelled into crash courses of being armchair experts in everything (or deferring to the real experts who tell us how to think about not only everything, but how to think about the experts themselves) and under apparent information and disinformation Blitzkrieg, where does that leave us?
I do not have the answer to this question.
But, I have another question.
Since there (probably technically) isn’t anything new under the sun, does Jesus or the canonized Christian Scriptures address the issues of how to deal with “frenemies?” In particular, national frenemies that some now revert into the “enemy” category?
Since I don’t know the answer to this (though the two pieces of Scripture that even remotely came to mind are the ones about making friends with the world – Luke 16:9 – and making friends with your enemy as you approach the altar – Matthew 5:24 – both of which snippets I remembered were somewhat inaccurate in the exact wording and probably have no clear application for the idea of “frenemies” etc) so what did I do?
I Googled it. What we all tend to do these days to either learn and/or try to make one’s point.
Below, I list Scriptures that came up in a search/link that I clicked.
Since I do not know the answers, I will just leave you with questions.
Always, always…we should question.
If people in the US and globally so easily ask for
the Big Gulp when ordering fast food,
why aren’t we Gulping Big as we consider
the state of affairs we have now entered?
A chess player may be quick to make some move without
thinking (nor caring) 2, 5 or 7 steps ahead on the gameboard…
and then, they are blindsided.
“I (we) just didn’t see that coming.”
12 Bible Verses about Making Peace With Enemies
Proverbs 16:7
When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord,
He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Hebrews 12:14
Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.
Matthew 5:25
Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.
Matthew 5:24
leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.
Romans 12:18
If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.
Leviticus 26:6
I shall also grant peace in the land, so that you may lie down with no one making you tremble. I shall also eliminate harmful beasts from the land, and no sword will pass through your land.
Romans 5:10
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Colossians 1:20-21
and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds,
Psalm 120:7
I am for peace, but when I speak,
They are for war.
Deuteronomy 20:10
When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall offer it terms of peace.
Deuteronomy 20:11
If it agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your forced labor and shall serve you.
Psalm 110:1
A Psalm of David.
The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at My right hand
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”
Source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Making-Peace-With-Enemies
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