Causes

It seems that there's no shortage of important causes for people to support.  It also seems that there's no shortage of people wanting to stand up for various causes.  It further seems that there's no shortage of people who want to get other people to stand up for the various causes.

Recently, over approximately a 24-hour period of time, posts came across my Facebook News Feed having to do with the following causes (listed in no particular order except more or less the order in which they appeared in the News Feed):

Staying in good physical shape

Alternative energy

Support the troops

Heart Disease Awareness

The plight of Shelter Animals

How to be a Good Parent

Education reform

Preventing the spread of the Zika Virus

Orphans

Homeless Teenagers

Spousal Abuse

Banning Beyonce from future Super Bowl performances

Alternative Medicine

Healthy Relationships

Protecting Pets

Addiction

Again, those were just things that showed up within about a 24-hour period of time.  Some are more important than others.  Some are more controversial than others.  All of them were important enough to someone to post about them.  And those do not include numerous posts that were overtly about politics and religion.

For the record, I have no problem with people posting these things--including posting about politics and religion; I have the tendency to post those types of things too.  But let's be realistic for a moment.  While many (if not all) of the causes for which I saw posts over a 24-hour period are indeed worthy of consideration, I do not have the time, energy, or money to contribute to all of them (or maybe even any of them).

There are simply a lot of "good causes" in this world.  The ones I specifically saw and mentioned from that 24-hour period on my Facebook News Feed didn't even include a number of causes for which I see posting fairly often.  These include...

...GMO Foods

...Vaccines (both pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine)

...Sexual Exploitation/Sex Trade

...Clothing Manufactured by Child/Slave-like Labor

...Disaster Relief

...Various Health Issues/"Epidemics"

...Texting while Driving

...Impaired Driving

...Money Management

...Visual and Fine Arts

The list could go on, and again, it does not include (at least overtly) religious or political issues. But now it's time to come to the point.

There are many different issues which deserve people's support, but every person is different.  Some issues will hit "closer to home" for some people, while other people will find different issues more important.  It's fine for people to make their opinions known, and to offer information that is intended to educate others about the various issues.  But when doing so, my advice is to not be insulting or condescending.  Give the people information, but don't get bent out of shape about it if someone disagrees or doesn't place as high of a priority on the issue as you do.  Don't act like or believe that you are superior to someone else if you place higher priorities on things than they do.  The truth is that there are too many issues for everyone to be interested in all of them.

Educate people, sure.  Be condescending towards them, no.  Insult them, absolutely not.  A great principle that can certainly apply here is found in the Bible in Romans 14, which tells us not to judge other people because of what they believe, because they have to answer not to us, but to God.

Perhaps things would be a lot better if we would let God deal with people about the issues He lays upon their hearts according to His timing, instead of our pushing our personal agendas on other people and expecting them to follow our beliefs and our timing with the issues.

The bottom line is that we are ultimately answerable to God, and God alone.