July 18th, 2020: What Are We Celebrating?

 When Americans Don't Riot, Politicians Feel Unrestrained - The ...

Celebrations are important. We celebrate weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations and many other personal or corporate accomplishments. It is healthy to celebrate. It is appropriate to celebrate. It is intuitive to celebrate. 

However, celebrating what is evil is another story. We struggle as we witness the society slowly is going out of its way to make evil acceptable. We believe that we are the author of justice and we are so aware of ourselves that we know what is good for everyone. We are so quick to condemn one form evil in one hand and embracing another form of evil in another. By doing so, we are condemning anyone who dares to think differently.

Celebration demands that we acknowledge what is good. When we ignore what is good, we might just celebrate a good spoiled (evil) as C.S. Lewis put it. He went on and said this in his thesis about God and the problem of evil:
"You know what the biologists mean by a parasite—an animal that lives on another animal. Evil is a parasite. It is there only because good is there for it to spoil and confuse."

When we celebrate evil, we celebrate a parasitic way of life. It makes us sick. It demands attention when it has no meaning. It cries out for correction while being entrenched in its own corruption. It proclaims its existence while spoiling all goodness around. 

It is time for us to commit to celebrating all that is good, beautiful and noble in this world. Let us not be confused between the oppressed and the oppressors. I am going to quote something that was sent to me by a friend recently:
"First we overlook evil then we permit evil. Then we legalize evil. Then we promote evil. We then celebrate evil. Then we persecute those who still call it evil."

Psalm 100:5 — For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

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