BRASWELL: In compromise, love must be the rule

It is the little betrayals of ourselves that brings hell on earth. Our own negligence of what we know we should do as opposed to what we can.

The memory of trash simply dumped on the side of the road or thrown out the windows of the car, the little betrayals of ourselves is what haunts us. The careless city worker who knowingly allows a dumpster full of paper to “miss the truck” and blow all over the city is a betrayal of his job and himself. Trash not picked up when we notice it and ignore the inclination to do so though one is not paid to do so. Instead often we “compromise” with “it’s not my fault,” “it’s not my job,” or “it’s not hurting me.”

When I was a little boy walking home from school one of my brothers and I would walk down the alleys during late spring and early summer, watch for peaches and other fruit trees with ripe fruit and help ourselves. We compromised with the belief that God made the fruit so it belonged to everybody. But I still ran when the angry owner came out and caught us.

In the 1840s, high-grading was the term used for stealing bits of gold from the mines. They were hidden down the pants and shirts of workers. A preacher on Sunday morning preached against stealing, but added at the end of the sermon “but gold belongs to him who finds it first.” All were relieved. At one mine alone $30 million in gold was high-graded through the years. Compromise can be motivated by greed, apathy and ignorance; but it hurts us all.

Often we don’t care or will compromise only when it will profit us. Mrs. Henriette Garret died in 1930 in Philadelphia, a childless widow. Twelve people showed up at the funeral, only two could be considered remotely kin. Then it was discovered that she had no will and $17 million. From most U.S. states and 29 foreign countries 26,000 people have claimed kinship. Today the estate exceeds $100 million and is still unclaimed.

To live in an ungodly world with a Christian ethic demands some compromise, but love must be the rule. Jesus told us “care for one another” and “love one another.” We accomplish them both when we see caring for the earth and our surroundings as a part of caring for each other.