Offence

And why we’re so quick to take it.

Lately in Church, the Pastor has been doing a sermon series about being truly unoffendable. It’s a really good series, and I would encourage you to check out the podcast at http://abclife.org/listenonline/

The thing is, it’s made me think an awful lot. There are so many things that we can find to take offence at nowadays. Sometimes I think it could almost be made a competitive sport. People choose to be offended, often by the smallest things. We take people’s opinions to heart; we make judgements on what people say, we just can’t seem to help ourselves, and rather than just agreeing to live and let live, we get offended.

This can often lead to massive disagreements, even within families, where these can cause rifts, and years being lost to family feuds. We’ve become a nation of keyboard warriors, where it’s okay to say anything online, and yet, if anyone dared to say some of the things we post online to our faces, we would become very deeply offended.

The fact is, sometimes, we really need to look at what we post online, and assess whether we would say it to someone’s face, because if we wouldn’t, then, really.. we shouldn’t be posting it online.

I absolutely hate the title of ‘snowflake’, but in some ways (although it has been massively misappropriated), it is true. We have become a society where we masquerade as ‘snowflakes’, whiter than white; not saying aloud, half of the black, festering things that we think, because if we don’t speak them, then they’re not real.

So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m going to try and make sure that anything I say online from now on, is also something I would say aloud “in real life”. I know that there are some times when this won’t be possible, but for the most part, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I aim to be the most authentic version of myself that I can be, both online, and offline.