“Was your family murdered?”

“It’s easy to write in your article in Beeld that we should love everyone, but was your family murdered on a farm?” an anonymous letter writer asked me. “Easy?” Everything looks easy once it is written down. The question is not whether something is easy to write about. The question is whether the suffering highlights Biblical principles. Can I ignore certain Biblical principles because my family was murdered? Does the Word of God apply only when it doesn’t clash with my political views or my safety? Should I stop being good to people who live, think and believe different things than me because I have been harmed by such individuals? Do my circumstances give me the right to decide which parts of the Bible I will follow and which parts I will ignore? No! God wants to chisel my selfish heart from my chest. He wants to teach me to live close to Him, even if I have to walk two miles against my own nature with people I can’t stand. If I don’t, I’m nothing more than a Pharisee. Faith changes the texture of my whole being.