Grace.

Every so often a news headline will grab my attention and stir within me the desire to push back against the momentum of the collective voice.

This past week, a "kiss cam" video from a concert went viral as the camera focused on a couple embracing and swaying to the music from the show. When the couple realized that they were being featured on the jumbotron, the pair immediately turned and tried to hide from the camera lens. Their embarrassed reaction drew a comment from the lead singer of the band since he was narrating what everyone in the arena saw on the screen. The pair were quickly identified as the CEO and HR Director from a major corporation here in the United States. Turns out, these two are married to other people and were caught in a situation they should not have been in.

I'm sure the moment caught on camera was a gut punch for them, and for their spouses, families, and coworkers. Here's the thing, it was a gut punch for all of us. When we see or experience something that we know to be wrong, it hurts all of us.

After the initial video was shared and aired, things only got worse. The video was shared by millions of people across social media. These two people became the punchline of every joke on the internet.

Here's the thing...

It's not funny.

It is heartbreaking.

It is tragic.

These two individuals had to face their spouses and families at some point this week and confess whatever was happening at that concert, and in that relationship. Their actions caused great harm.

Everybody was humiliated.

The pair at the concert. The spouses and families of those two individuals. Their associates and schoolmates. And yet...

People keep sharing this video. People keep talking about it. People keep making meme's about it.

Let me ask you...

How would you feel if the most embarrassing moment in your life unfolded in front of 30,000 concert goers? The thing you feel the most shame for. The moment you wish you could take back, or undo. Can you imagine the despair they felt?

How would you feel if that moment was then shared, hundreds of thousands of times, by people that don't even know you? Every comment adding another stab to an already painful moment.

Can. You. Imagine?

What if instead, we paused for just a moment and absorbed the sadness of witnessing these two people scrambling to hide their faces, and felt compassion towards them?

What if the band, recognizing what was happening, calmly asked the camera to be turned off?

What if we put ourselves in their shoes, recognizing their mortification, and just stood with them in the moment - knowing that the road ahead of them was going to be just plain painful?

What if we viewed this situation through the eyes of grace?

You know, grace. The love, forgiveness, understanding, or mercy that we don't deserve - but so desperately long for.

Grace, the thing we need most. More than a pound of flesh, or just desserts, or the "satisfaction" of seeing someone "get what they deserve".

Grace.

What if, instead of sharing something of this nature, we took twenty seconds and offered a prayer for everyone involved?

Or a kind word?

What if we stopped contributing to someone else's heartache, and recognized instead that any number of things we've done wrong could have been exploited instead?

You have a choice. What will you choose?

“I hope that either all of us or none of us are judged by the actions of our weakest moments… but rather by the strength we show when, and if we’re ever given a second chance” - Ted Lasso

In writing and sharing this, I am not excusing the behavior of an extra marital affair. I am, however, offering that we have a choice in how we respond.

Let us be people of compassion and grace, so that in our darket hours we can stand with hope.

I'll see you down the road, Greg