The world’s wisdom traditions have all advocated for peace, love and compassion in human relations as the key to well-being and human flourishing.
Galatians 5:15 is the Bible’s warning on toxic culture: “hostility, quarrelling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group” are among the toxic arrows that poison ☠️ a community. The warning ⚠️: “Beware of destroying one another.”
But, of course, toxicity flows from the heart. 🖤 Hearts filled with “greed, hate, envy, fighting, deception, malicious behaviour, and gossip” (Rom 1:29-31), will sow toxic seeds, producing gardens of fear, division, pain and trauma. And the downward cycle continues...
👭We all have a different role to play in weaving our communities together. Are you a Steward? A Healer? An Elder? A Seer? A Venturer? A Maker? A Gatherer? Consider your natural gifts. 🎁
We are reminded that “it takes but one [toxic] person among you to infect all the others”. (Gal 5:9) 🔥 Don’t be that person.
Besides, we will never truly be good stewards of our environment if we do not get our hearts right.
In the words of Guru Radhanath Swami: “Even if you clean every river, every ocean, all the air and all the ground, as long as that selfish, egoistic greed is there, they are just going to pollute it all over again.” 🙏
Take the journey from Bullyville to Sustainaville. Read Save Your City: How Toxic Culture Kills Community & What To Do About It.