This story is taken from a YouTube video by: Johnny Anonymous - As Bad as the Darts We Throw
9 The one who says he is in the Light and yet
hates his brother is in the darkness until now.
10 The one who loves his brother abides in the
Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
11 But the one who hates his brother is
in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not
know where he is going because the darkness has blinded
his eyes.
-- 1 John 2:9-11 (NASB1995)
Three months had passed but Scarlett was still eager to tell others of an experience she had in a seminary class given by her teacher, Dr. Miller. The teacher had been there 20 years and was well know for his elaborate object lessons. He regularly used props, making those lessons relative by all who were in attendance. Scarlett swept her long blond hair behind her ears and she began to tell the story of her friend…
“There's a long hallway to his classroom, lined with red velvet cloth on the walls. The seminary let him re-decorate it in 2020, and approved it to remind others of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. Anyway, if you take Dr. Miller's class, he's on the bottom floor of C building. When you find the red hallway, it's the door at the end, that's his.”
The Darts We Throw
It was Good Friday when 23 year old Scalrett walked into the classroom. She glanced around the room and knew undoubtedly that the class was in for a fun day. On the wooden wall was a dartboard, and on a nearby table were many, many darts, at least two hundred. Dr. Miller gave each student a sheet of paper and told the students to draw a picture of someone that they disliked, someone who had slighted them in the past, lied to them, or someone who had made them angry.
The professor had cut a brown paper bag apart and placed it on the dartboard with a picture of his own behind it, yet nobody knew what his picture was. He informed the students, “There is tape on the other table, and darts. ”The students were all too quick to draw their pictures and tape them onto the dartboard. “Alright, who goes first?” Scarlett asked.
Scarlett's friend drew a picture of a girl who had stolen her boyfriend. Another guy in her class drew a picture of his former boss who fired him. One student drew a picture of his dad who abused him as a child. Scarlett drew a picture of a former friend who relentlessly made fun of her in high school, putting a great amount of detail into her drawing, even drawing X's for eyes, as though the person was dead.
The remaining students followed suit, drawing pictures of people they couldn't stand or even hated.
Dr. Miller sat back and watched. Little did they know that this was the lesson. The class lined up and each taped their pictures to the brown paper on the dartboard. One by one, they began throwing darts. Some of the students threw their darts with such force that their targets were ripping apart. Some threw 5 darts, some threw as many as 20.
“I can't stand him”, one student shouted as he threw his darts at the picture he had drawn. “This is for firing me, you idiot boss!” Another classmate mumbled under his breath as he took his turn. Scarlett looked forward to her turn, and was filled with rage as she threw her first of many darts. All but one hit her target straight in the face. After about twenty minutes and the last of the students had thrown their darts, Dr. Miller began removing the remaining darts from the dartboard. All that was left, was the brown paper on the dartboard covered in hundreds of holes.
The professor stood right next to the dartboard, looked at the entire classroom and said, “I never told any of you to throw darts at you picture.” Everyone in the class looked at each other in disbelief and started whispering among themselves. “Dr. Miller, what do you mean?”, many of them asked. “I told you to draw a picture of someone you disliked, I then said that there was tape and darts on the other table, that's all I said.” The students were in utter shock.
Dr. Miller softly asked, “Do you understand?” The class still looked completely confused. “You simply assumed that I wanted you to tape your picture to the dartboard and throw darts at it; I never said that. Your ability to forgive the person you had drawn, was overridden by the anger you had for them.” Scalrett raised her hand. “Dr. Miller, what was your picture?”
At that very moment as if in slow motion, like a leaf falling from a tree, the brown paper that was covering the dartboard fell to the ground revealing his picture.
A hush fell over the room as the students viewed the mangled picture. A few started crying as they could read what was written under the picture. Too distraught to stay in the classroom, Scarlett ran out of the room and down the hallway.
As every student continued to stare at the picture with an enormous amount of guilt, Dr. Miller said only these words…
“We are all human and have certain characteristics and emotions, but as Christians, hate should not be one of them. Hate truly is...as bad as the darts we throw.”
