If people could look inside you, what would they see? Just skin and bone or someone with purpose? In the science world, the underlying premise of the human body is that; how you begin your life determines how you will end up; meaning that there is a common pattern within a person’s early childhood that will affect their health later in life. That can be the case of a child who is malnourished early in life and as a direct result have health issues later on and can even die from them. But what about a person’s behavior and the decisions that they make throughout their life? Is there no escape for the child who is raised around parents that live a life of drugs and crime. Are they bound by the decisions of their parents and their peers? What determines that? Well, I am no expert and personally, I don’t’ believe that there are any real experts on the subject. I base that opinion on the material that I have read, written by educated doctors, psychologist, counselors and many folk with well intentions yet, I have not been impressed with their conclusions. The reason that I feel this way is because of my own life’s experiences and the outcome of many people that I know personally who overcame the odds that the world’s intellects tell us, is the inevitable for the poor and afflicted ones. It breaks my heart that our society has no hope! Their excuse is that our jails are filled with men, women, boys and girls that are direct results of their upbringing and environment.
While environment does play a role, to say to our younger generation that you are hopeless because of where you come from is only giving them a free pass to turn out the exact way that they are expected to. While there is no doubt that our surroundings effect our attitudes and behaviors, we also have a free will to choose as to how we want to live. Sadly, the world looks at the ones who choose to do wrong and miss seeing the ones who have become overcomers having lived with those same obstacles. They are the ones who in their early years, lived in and through difficult and unbelievable circumstances, yet rose above them to live meaningful lives that contribute back to society in positive ways. They used their God given right called, their free will, wisely. It is that free will and no matter what anyone may have to say about it or the excuses that are used to cover it up, the bottom line is that we are all responsible for our actions and attitudes. Have you ever been on a job interview and was ask the question, “What do you believe your strengths and weakness are?” The world’s view is to never expose our weaknesses but instead simply disguise them as strengths. For instance we learn to say things like, “I am a perfectionist” or maybe something like “I have this stubborn drive” or even, “I struggle with my work and personal life to keep a balance, because I tend to work too much”, wondering all the time if we have impressed the one who is doing our interview with our worldly integrity.
Our jails are full of people who are making excuses and feel that they have been given a raw deal. Mankind may overlook our wrong doings and sin and make excuses for them. But God on the other hand does not! He does one of two things with them, He either forgives or punishes. But, we have to engage our free will by asking Him and choosing to come to Him on His terms or face the consequences. The good thing is that He longs for us to choose forgiveness and in doing so, we reap a life that is successful, productive, having hope that no matter what our background or circumstance has been, our future is sure. If we would spend more time today filling our body with the right stuff and getting back to the basics of the morality of the Bible, we would see a decline in crime, poverty and heartache and when people looked inside us, they would see, not us, but Christ the very living Word of God living in us. To the child of God, this is not an option!
Hold Fast,
Bren
No comments:
Post a Comment