I have grown weary of many things. Weariness has become a constant companion, not from the weight of my own burdens, but from the heaviness of living in a world where too many take life for granted.
The alteration of 19 lives—16 children and 3 adults—should shake us to our core. Their names, faces, and dreams cut short should have been enough to bring the world to its knees in repentance and resolve. Yet here we are again—mourning, lamenting, shaking our heads, while the drumbeat of indifference plays on. It is evidence that many people do not truly care about God’s creation. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb”(Psalm 139:13). If God took such care in creation, how dare we treat life as disposable?
The Premise Within the Premise
I have said many times that the “golden rule” has a premise within a premise. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Matthew 7:12). But let’s be honest—the deeper truth often goes unexamined. When you practice an action toward someone else, you are not only expressing your heart—you are granting permission for the recipient to respond in kind.
If I act in love, I am giving space for love to flourish. If I act in hate, I create the cycle where hate multiplies. More than that, it reveals what I truly believe about myself. “For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Luke 6:45). If I live from a place of bitterness, anger, and hatred, then those toxic forces govern my entire worldview.
But here’s the deeper truth: my refusal to respond in kind reveals what I believe about myself. My unwillingness to lash out in vengeance is not weakness—it is the fruit of self-love. I am not absolving the harm done. I am not practicing “cheap grace” that excuses wickedness. My love for myself will not allow me to descend into the pit of destruction.
Love as a Form of Resistance
When I think about the murder of children during morning mass, the assassination of political figures, the endless parade of mass shootings, and the rising tide of unjustified hatred, one conviction becomes clear: it is more important than ever to reestablish the practice of self-love.
- We should love ourselves enough to demand laws that protect life. That means finally enacting universal background checks—not as a partisan talking point but as a moral baseline for a civilized people. “Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter” (Proverbs 24:11).
- We should love ourselves enough to guard our children fiercely. Protect them not just from bullets, but from predators, manipulators, traffickers, and political charlatans who prey on innocence for profit and power. “But if anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea” (Matthew 18:6).
- We should love ourselves enough to demand justice. Remove criminals from positions of influence, prosecute wrongdoing without hesitation, and stop excusing corruption because of political allegiance. “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow” (Isaiah 1:17).
- We should love ourselves enough to dismantle false religion. No more cheap justifications for heinous acts wrapped in Bible verses. No more bastardized theologies that baptize hatred in the name of Christ. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces”(Matthew 23:13). Jesus himself would have beaten the holy hell out of such posers in the temple courts (John 2:15).
- We should love ourselves enough to speak truth to power. Stop sipping the snake oil that poisons the well of decency and goodwill. “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6).
- We must love ourselves enough to honor prophetic voices. Repent for how we mocked and demonized men like Dr. Jeremiah Wright. History has proven his words to be far more right than wrong. “Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7).
- We must love ourselves enough to imagine the Kingdom of God rightly. Stop settling for the illusion of empire. The Kingdom is not built on exploitation, greed, racism, or nationalism. “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).
A Warning and a Hope
If we do not reclaim love—real love, rooted in God’s truth and in respect for ourselves—we will reap the harvest of this hell on earth. “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7). And make no mistake, that harvest is already ripening.
But if we dare to love ourselves enough to break cycles of hatred and indifference, then we will sow a different kind of seed. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23).
The Kingdom of God is waiting. The question is—do we love ourselves enough to embrace it?
Dr. Charles W. Ferguson 