Growth is Hard

Finally, for the first time, I want to bring to light some of the comments that I have received over the couple years regarding my work, not to moan and complain, but to show what it looks like to be attacked by your peers, because I know that there are others out there who face 10x the amount of hate on a regular basis. To me, those people that push through the hatred are heroes.

I am finally at a point personally where my fear of being disliked will not silence me from doing what I love. The problem with fear is that it promotes the exact opposite of growth. Instead of pushing through the hateful comments, I shy aware in fear, for no reason at all. Today, that all changes.

Attached below are just some of the messages I have received about my work, and never shared publicly before. To be fair, comments like these are not the worst thing in the world, but it still shows how hateful people can be. I apologize in advance for the profanity, and degrading comments, but I want to make these comments public:

When I first started receiving comments like these, it was pretty demoralizing. I thought that doing something I enjoy, writing, would be accepted by my peers. I did not take into account how easily people can become offended, and respond out of hate. Every single comment above was submitted by students at a private, “Christian”, university.

That fact should break the hearts of those who support such institutions that fail to acknowledge the corruption and hypocrisy that dwells within. It is for this reason, and others, that my faith in institutionalized, religious education is quite low. And while it is not my intent to cause further harm, it must be known that there will always people in life who thrive on hatred toward others. This is simply an irrefutable a fact of life. It is not the hate that matters, but how you respond!

So long as a person publicly takes a stand, there will always be those who choose to criticize, insult, and belittle that person. I wonder if some of the social problems we face here in the United States are because We The People fear being attacked for what we believe.

Is it possible that Christians are afraid of standing up for their beliefs? Is it possible that people who love this country are afraid of being verbally attacked if they are too vocal? Would our society not be a better place if we stopped living in fear of hate from one another, and actually had the courage to stand up to those who seek to divide and destroy our culture? Should we not support one another when the hatred starts, defending our neighbors and ones we love?

I can’t help but wonder if there are others out there who are sitting in silence, afraid to make that next big step in their life because they fear what others will say? Is it possible that there are men and women who are afraid to grow personally, professionally, or spiritually because of the hate they might receive?

Surely we can acknowledge that making decisions out of fear will lead to destruction. Surely we know that there is no happy ending to a life lived in fear.

This week alone, there was a 10% growth in the number of people who provided their emails to the newsletter subscription. To those of you who have done this, thank you! It has renewed my confidence in myself, by seeing that there are people out there who are not hateful. It is my hope that the number of email subscribers continues to grow, with people who are not interested in being hateful, but in supporting one another. Stopping the cycle of fear in the United States has to be a top priority, in my opinion.

And as I start back into this, I want people to share the topics they find interesting, and let me know if there are subjects that they would like to see me write about. Without feedback from you, and what you find interesting, it is impossible for me to know whether my interests are aligned with yours.

This time around, I would like you, the audience, to submit feedback, but with a way for me to reach out and discuss your feedback further. Your opinion is the most important thing to me! Without it, I might as well stop writing altogether!

Furthermore, I am realizing that the entire purpose of a site like this is to build connections and relationships with people who are from different backgrounds and prospectives. There is nothing more meaningful to me than when someone from another country tells me how their experience differs from our experiences here in the United States.

Having conversations with new people regularly opens your mind up to see the world from a point of view that was previously unknown to you. It gives you the opportunity to put your ideas to the test, and see if you were right or wrong. In any case, having productive conversations allows growth to occur in ways that are impossible to accomplish alone. For me, growth through criticism is hard, but I know that the person providing the feedback is doing so, hopefully, out a genuine care and desire to promote growth. It is my hope that as new relationships are built, everyone is mutually benefited.