The Necessity of Confrontation
This is the third post in a series of posts entitled: "Truth's Heroes."
Instead of standing up for what's right, we complain about what's wrong....
Today at school I saw a student being bullied by another couple of students. Here's what happened: During lunch, a girl was walking back from the snack machine with a bag of candy. Tearing open the bag, the candy spilled on the ground. Two other students reacted and grabbed some of it for themselves. Having seen what happened, I began walking toward the incident in the back of the lunch room. The girl had finished picking up her candy and was asking for the other pieces back from the two bullies. Instead of handing the candy over to the girl, they threw one piece on the ground and laughed. The girl, shaking her head, turned and walked back to her seat. In the meantime, one of the bullies took out a piece of the candy and began eating it. This is about the time when I entered the picture. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy.
Allow me to introduce myself: My name is Jordan. I was voted Most Easily Embarrassed in the yearbook by my peers all the years of middle school because my face turned as red as a tomato anytime my name was mentioned. This prestigious award followed me all the way to high school and earned me no more popularity than the title would suggest.
In college, I took a strength's test to determine what my gifts as a human being were. Number one on my list - far above any of the others - was the gift of "Harmony." The definition said that I hated confrontation and would do anything to avoid it and live at peace with everyone. This, of course, is very true of who I am.
All of this is to say that I hate confrontation. It stresses me out. It wears me down. It seems quite pointless to me. I do not like it.
"To confront" someone or something is defined by Dictionary.com as the following: "to face in hostility or defiance; oppose." This is just something I have never enjoyed.
I approached one of the male students who was eating the piece of candy he had opportunely snatched from the girl. I challenged him - I confronted him - saying, "Hey! That's not yours."
The student lied to my face, stating, "She gave it to me." Then he turned his back, eyed me up and down, and started walking away.
Of course there was part of me that wanted to turn the other way myself and avoid the confrontation which I knew must take place - confrontation that would lead me to expose the student's lie and address his disrespect.
As I took a step toward the student and called out his name, another bystander to the entire situation said, "Don't talk to him. Don't worry about him," comments I ignored, although I heard.
For whatever historical reason, this idea of avoiding difficult things has permeated our culture to the core. People no longer do hard things, they only quit them or avoid them altogether. This bystander was asking me to do just that: avoid the problem of the bully.
Since when did doing hard things become so rare? We - myself included - have all been influenced to a certain degree by the wrong-thinking that we deserve things without having to work hard for them. We believe, generally, that when things get difficult we should quit. I propose that this is the very reason marriages are not lasting; that this is the very reason there are so many drawing unemployment checks; that this is the very reason there are so many single, unmarried mothers; that this is the very reason coaches see their players skip practices; that this is the very reason students do not do their homework. Somewhere along the line we have lost our sense of duty and commitment; we have replaced them with apathy and weakness.
My mom hangs a lot of pictures on the walls of her and my dad's house. The pictures add a lot of color and a warm feeling to the house, making it feel like home. Sometimes my mom hammers the nail to hold the picture directly into the dry wall, but usually she has my dad help her find a stud. (Sometimes, in his search for a stud, he stands in front of the mirror and has my come and look....)
A stud is a piece of wood (usually a 2x4) in the wall that makes the wall sturdy. While it is much easier to hammer a nail straight into the dry wall, the picture's weight on the nail may crack and wreck the wall's integrity. Hammering a nail through the dry wall and into the stud itself is a lot harder, but it gives great stability and easily holds the picture's weight.
The same principle can be applied to our live: Doing things the easy way rarely pays off. We must confront the hard, difficult things in life. This way our life will have character, integrity, and honor. In the Lord's eyes, this is what is most important.
Micah 6:8 says, "He has shown you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." Acting justly - serving justice - is rarely easy, yet it is what the Lord requires. Loving mercy - forgiving and showing grace - is rarely easy, yet it is also what the Lord requires. Walking humbly with God - being obedient to God in the context of a loving relationship - is rarely easy, yet it is what the Lord desires above all else. Doing the hard things in life are always the most rewarding. This is especially true when it comes to being an Ambassador for Truth.
In the end, I confronted the bully toe-to-toe, letting him know that bullying won't be tolerated. He didn't like me for it, of course, but that is the price that sometimes must be paid in order to stand for what's right. In fact, Jesus said that when we bear witness to Him and the Truth He taught we would be hated and disliked. John 15:18 and 21 says: "If the world hates you, keep in mind it hated Me first. ... They will treat you this way because of My Name, for they do not know the One who sent Me."
Please understand: Telling people they are wrong is not the main point of standing up for what's right and confronting evil; Jesus did not come to this earth to only tell people what they were doing was wrong. He did come to expose the reality of sin and wrongdoing, but He also came to save us from that sin. In order for anyone to repent, they must first know of what they are repenting. My belief is that today our culture has so clouded the definitions of what is right and what is wrong that Christians must once again boldly speak the Truth, calling sin wrong and preaching the Good News that all who repent (or, "turn from their sin") will be saved through Jesus Christ.
That is the Gospel. That is the Good News. We, as Christians, are Christ's hands and feet, and it is up to us to speak the Truth in love to all ends of the world! (Ephesians 4:15 and Matthew 28:18-2). Let us be obedient in proclaiming His Name, knowing that the Holy Spirit convicts and saves those who are lost.
My friend, I challenge you today to do the hard thing and stand up for what's right!
Join us next time to see another one of Truth's Heroes in action and discover what it means to stand up for what's right - no mater what!
Stand up for what's right to go beyond the normal.
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