Fri | Mar 29, 2024

Choose love over wickedness

Published:Wednesday | June 19, 2019 | 12:42 AM
A volunteer with Missionaries of the Poor.
A volunteer with Missionaries of the Poor.

Hello, mi neighbour! The parent who beats a child mercilessly is wicked. The driver who disobeys the traffic signal and kills a pedestrian in the process is wicked. The doctor who wilfully prescribes wrong medicine for a patient is wicked. Every human being has the potential to perform wicked acts. ”The heart of humankind is deceitful, unreliable and desperately wicked.” Who knows, understands or comprehends the extent to which a man’s heart will drive him to do wickedness? Yet, a heart touched and powered by true love is the greatest dispenser of kindness on earth.

About this time last year, I wrote an article on the price of wickedness in response to comments and assertions overheard in the streets of Kingston. People were overheard boasting about who was wickeder than who and what they did and would do to those who offended them. The point of that article was to help neighbours choose kindness over wickedness.

And here’s an excerpt: “All acts of wickedness stem from an evil, selfish heart, which blossoms into stupidity and results in extended pain, misery and sometimes death, and if I may add, could even get an entire community embroiled into an ugliness which could have been easily averted. And what’s the sense in that by the end of the day? Consider your ways.”

So what do we do in a culture where wickedness carries the swing? Toughen up with love! Love enables us to do the tough things that those weakened by a wicked heart cannot do. We need to understand that wickedness is not a sign of toughness but of weakness. Weak people destroy, but tough people build and rebuild.

A man or woman hardened by love will give his/her last to restore a dying soul or feed a hungry family. This individual loves neighbour equally to self and can go the extra mile to build the bridge that will make a positive difference in the lives of others.

As opposed to the heart weakened by wickedness, the heart toughened by love, empowers one to make and keep promises because he knows the negative effect a broken promise can have on the trusting. People who choose love over wickedness are patient and kind. They know that these two ingredients make warmer, happier people who are always valuable to the whole community.

To borrow a Bible passage, “Love does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails”.

And hear this now, those who practise wickedness instead of love will always fail, will always be in danger, will always be unhappy, and will always be angry.

At the end of the day, they would’ve missed out on the finer things of this life and then go out a miserable ol’ soul to ‘God knows where’.

So, ‘pudung’ the wickedness, embrace love, enjoy life and enter a brighter world hereafter.

In the name of love, please help a neighbour from list below.

Until next time, one love and zero wickedness.

THANKS TO NEIGHBOURS

n Ian, St Andrew, for help with neighbour’s welfare.

n Peter, St Catherine, for neighbourly assistance.

n Neighbour, St Catherine, for female/male clothing.

NEIGHBOURS’ REQUESTS

n Neighbour, unemployed, desperately needs a mattress.

n Latoya, Portland, desperately in need of clothing for baby.

n Neighbour desperately needs a little piece of land in St Catherine for a Food For The Poor house.

To help, please call Silton Townsend @ 334-8165 or 884-3866, or deposit to acct # 351 044 276 NCB. Alternatively, send donations to HELLO NEIGHBOUR c/o 53 Half-Way Tree Road, Kingston 10. Paypal/credit card email: zicron22@yahoo.com. Contact email: helloneighbour@yahoo.com. Visit hellomineighbourja.blogspot.com. Mr Townsend exclusively manages the collections and distributions mentioned in this column and is neither an employee nor agent of The Gleaner.