Hatred

I had a conversation recently about dealing with emotions etc, and specifically about dealing with hatred towards us - which is a topic that tends to crop up amongst Christians, what with the Bible saying the world will hate us and all... It led me to thinking, though, that in some ways indifference can be far more damaging than hatred. At least with hatred there's something to fight against, but how does one fight the nothingness of indifference? I don't know much about this, but I imagine that when people contemplate suicide it's often because they feel that no one cares, not because they feel hated. How do we stop people feeling unloved and unnoticed?

As a society we're conditioned to look after ourselves and to mind our own business... but maybe it's time we started minding other people's business too. We Christians are usually pretty good at being friendly at morning tea and caring during 'prayer point' time at Bible study, but a simple phone call during the week to say "how are you going?" can make a world of difference to people. Or an e-mail that says, "I'm thinking about you" instead of one that says, "I'm thinking about you... and I think you'd be the perfect person to go on the new roster"! They're only little things but I reckon they could be big things to someone who's feeling lonely and isolated.