Battling Stupid One Day At A Time

February 16, 2009

By Kent d Curry

I hate stupid.

Everyone makes stupid mistakes in life. It comes with life.

Stupid is different. Stupid is complaining about being sick, yet somehow forgetting to take your medicine. Stupid is complaining about how messy the house is, yet most of it is your own doing. Stupid is wanting a new house (or vehicle or overseas travel), yet refusing to sacrifice and change your spending habits to achieve that goal.

I don’t have any time for stupid.

Fortunately for me, Jesus did.

The disciples too often epitomized a perplexed stupid. The Pharisees too often epitomized an obstinate stupid. Even the people, who trusted Christ to heal them, too often seemed stupid to anything beyond their own short-term benefits. Yet His response to the innocent stupid and the perplexed stupid is compassion. The Gospel tells us, “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).

Compassion means “a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.” Jesus felt compassion toward nearly everyone, mainly for spiritual and physical healing. To me, that definition covers stupid. (After all, it’s definitely a type of suffering that needs to be alleviated.)

The difference is between how I react and how He reacted. His example was kindness and understanding, mine is harsh and unkind. Actually, it’s kind of stupid.

Time for me to change. Again.

ninetyandnine

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Kent d Curry fights stupid one day at a time. He is an executive editor at ninetyandnine.com.