Disobedience: Neglecting or refusing to obey; omitting to do what is commanded, or doing what is prohibited; refractory; not observant of duty or rules prescribed by authority, as children disobedient to their parents, or citizens disobedient to the laws. (American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster, 1828)
Children…
Children are notorious for disobeying. You ask them to do something and they refuse. The more willful a child, the more they drive their heels into the ground.
And when they get older, they simply ignore you, knowing that, when they were younger, they could use the same tactics and nothing you could do or say would sway them from their position.
They are the losers when it is something for their own good. And it sets a precedence for their future as adults.
But what about adults?
There is a fine line to walk as an adult. If you have learned well the discipline of obeying those in authority, then any disobedience comes with a lot of prudent distinctions and judgements of civil laws that may be in question.
True obedience to any morally just law is mandatory. It helps preserve and maintain an ordered society. Should the citizens decide that the laws are subjective to their emotions, then their disobedience is set on shaky ground.
But if the morally just laws are set by the authority in charge, they should be obeyed. They are not subjective. They are, instead, very must objective toward the common good of the people as a whole. Uncomfortable, perhaps, but necessary to maintain that societal order.
Disobedience…
There is a proper time for disobeying.
Martin Luther King said it very succinctly:
“One has an moral obligation to disobey unjust laws.”
But what is an unjust law?
Unjust: …acting contrary to the standard of right established by the Divine Law; not equitable (American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster, 1828)
Equality…
Today, the term “equality” translates into the rebellious hearts and minds of our youth as something that pertains to their wants. They are told that they should be given what they demand, such as unjustly high wages or permission to become whatever they determine based on what they desire to become, regardless of either the sanity in question or the ramifications it has on anyone else.
Comparisons…
They have been groomed to believe that they are the center of their own universe. Everyone else, including their family, be damned.
But is that really what “equality” means? Let us turn to the original American Dictionary again to see what the term actually meant and determine how today’s definition fits:
“An agreement of things in dimensions, quantity or quality; likeness;
similarity in regard to two things compared.”
If a burger flipper at MacDonald’s demands a higher wage, equal to someone in management or with more experience, for example, are their skills and experience equal to their superiors? Is their demand, then, truly, a demand for equality?
How about the F grade student demanding entrance to college on an equal footing as someone who has worked hard and achieved an A grade status?
Let’s continue the definition:
“The same degree of dignity or claims…as the equality of nobles of the same rank; an equality of rights.”
Those who have no or little experience demanding equal share in what has been achieved by those who worked hard and have more experience…are they justified in their claim that they are equivalent to those who have more capacity to perform more complex tasks, or tasks that require many more years to gain skills than they possess?
Continue:
“Evenness; plainness, uniformity; as an equality of temper or constitution (the emotional makeup of an individual)”
Is is justifiable to equate ones’ self with someone who has a more congenial temperament or personality? Can the angry man be considered equal to the calm man?
It makes one wonder…
Where does this type of entitlement attitude come from? Does it truly show there are wrongs in society that must be addressed? In some cases, it does.
But what about what is clearly not on the same playing field? Does it all stem from a sense of jealousy? Are these unthinking minds being trained to believe that they must think themselves to be the same as anyone else they view as their equal?
Can a poor actor become a super star? A bad singer with no musical talent and very tone deaf become an operatic soloist? Or perhaps a person with talent for basketball become a skilled ballerina just by thinking that they are the same?
Insanity or something deeper?
Is all this just something that some have come to believe and cry loudly to be heard?
Or is it perhaps that the statement of St. Mother Theresa more applicable?
The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is Love.
(Mother Theresa, A Simple Path)
There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread, but there are many more dying for a little love.
The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty. It is not only a poverty of loneliness, but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, and there is a hunger for God.”
Love – the key to our humanness…
The greatest cry of despair from any human being is the cry for recognition. Those who cry the loudest and attempt to fit into a world gone mad are ones who are lacking in something far deeper than being equal to their favorite actor or highest paid individual.
The greatest cry we hear is the cry for Love.
And it is the one we fail to recognize time and time again.
We are so caught up in our own problems and situations that we simply lash out at the one who is screaming the loudest.
Perhaps we need to take a step back and really hear the cry of the human heart.
It is a cry for human dignity. And it comes by loving those around us.
It is something I need to work on. We all do. No laws will make that happen. No government mandates are going to fix any of this.
It needs to come from within us.
The key is Love. God’s Love. The lock that unbolts the hardest of hearts is the Love of them through the eyes of their Creator.
Love people by seeing God’s Love for them. See God in them.
Then you will be able to fill their hearts with peace. For then they will see the sincerity and origin of your love for them.
And you can love them for their own sake.