"Men are Pigs" . . . or "If we really lived out faith"

I spent this last week having such deep and gut-wrenching conversations with people who are going through such horrible things in their lives.  Most of the problems were brought on by men who abuse alcohol or drugs and then abuse the people they claim to love.  Some lock themselves in their rooms, turn on the TV and turn off the world.  The rest of the family has dinner while one chair is empty.  


I am on a rotation of people who meet with those who are going through rough times and need someone to talk to.  This was my week.  The week to hear of self-centered and emotionally immature people who wreak havoc on the lives of the people that love them.  


Part of me wants to just smack them and get them somehow to wake up and see what great treasure awaits them if they realized that people love them and are willing to help them out of their own malaise.  But they turn to drugs or alcohol or other addictions that help soothe and medicate the pain they feel.  One person is scared about the growing anger they feel within.  Another is worried about the results of years of alienation.  Like I said, most of them were women who have been through terrible storms in life because of men who never grew up.  Men who chose to sulk, pout, hit, punch, verbally abuse or otherwise intimidate the people in their lives.  


It makes me want to hurt those people . . . to scream and holler . . . to threaten them to get a grip on life and stop hurting others.  But doesn't that just continue the cycle of intimidation and violence?  God, how do you do it?  How do you suffer through another day of these people hurting the innocent?


It is funny, my blog post from the other day on Facebook read, "Christians mess up everything" and an old cynical friend from high school reacted with a reply: "I agree."  Perhaps that was a touch of Catholic school speaking, but it is a day like this that I couldn't disagree with him more.  If people actually lived out the Christian faith this world would be different.  Christianity doesn't mess up the world - actors who play Christianity do.


Imagine a world where people never lied.  Never cheated - at school or on loved ones.  Imagine a place where no one stole from a store or from someone's marriage.  Imagine a world where no one was made a sexual object.  Everyone honored their parents and loved the hard-to-love.  Imagine a world where people put others' interests first.  


Christianity is a great idea . . . if we ever chose to live it.  


We hear so much about how religion divides and fractures people, but imagine a world where true faith was enacted.  It is possible.  Really.