Only in Nightmares

            All of us live and move through multiple social circles and it is a rare instance that everyone in these social circles is a pleasure to be with and interact with. Regardless of the social circle, we occasionally will meet someone, interact with someone, and while we watch them act and speak, and sometimes we wonder ‘how are they able to be successful in any manner when they are borderline mentally handicapped’.

               People will say and do things without giving much depth of thought to their actions or words. Sadly, too many people don’t reflect on what they’ve spoken or done, while we may replay the conversation over and over in our memory long after the interaction was complete. Often these are palm to face moments, where we are left dumbfounded with what someone else said or did. Unfortunately, we will think of a better response, minutes or hours later and wish that we could go back in time and respond appropriately.

               Those with whom we interact are very much like the food we eat, the money we spend, and whatever we choose to entertain us. If you desire to be strong and healthy, you will avoid fast food, processed foods, and empty calories. A better alternative would be to eat high quality food, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, and homemade bread products. In addition to this you should be getting some exercise each day to be in control of your body.

               When we associate with shallow, empty-headed, and low culture people, we will be influenced by them. On the contrary, it is much better to find those who are older, wiser, and have more experience than we do, and make an effort to draw them into our lives to be a positive influence upon us. When wisdom, high culture, and excellence become our goals in life, we will be better, stronger, wiser and have the opportunity to positively influence those around us.

               To make good progress in becoming an excellent person, you should study history and find those in the past who made good decisions to be a light to those around them. These people will be focused on loving others, rather than entertaining themselves with childish whims or games. The person who refuses to be controlled and directed by worldly passions will be the one who makes a positive influence on their culture. A common phrase or idea is that silence is better than noise and gossip. Be the wise person that others will seek out for direction and assistance as they move through life.

Nothing Left to Say

 

            Everyone knows a wide variety of people in many different situations, with different types of relationships. If you are wise and attentive to the reality of how some people think and behave, you will be careful in what you are willing to share and discuss. Betrayal comes in many different forms; some will squeeze information and details from you in order to use this information to try to control you or ruin how others view you.

               You may think that you know someone, after having interacted with them for many years but then later learn that this specific person has been speaking poorly of you, criticizing you to others, and has been planning for a long time to destroy your name and reputation. With this in mind, be careful about what you share and what you reveal.

               It gives one a good feeling to believe that you can know and trust someone but then when everything falls apart and the long-lasting deception is finally revealed, you are left with anger, frustration, and disbelief. When those you love and who you believe loved you turn against you and begin speaking deception, you must make a decision on how you respond.

               You can respond with anger and give a reciprocal response of seeking to reveal their deception or you can respond with love and not allow this other person to win the small battle they have begun against you. As the historic Christian Church has always taught, no matter what others do or say about you, you are to respond with love and not anger or revenge.

               When you respond with love, you will find that the other person will be left with nothing to say or they may invent other deception to continue to try to destroy your image. Let your words and your actions tell the truth about you rather than what someone else is inventing in their imagination. When everyone else hears your words, and sees your actions they will hopefully come to understand that you are not shaped like what the person has invented.

Peace Rather Than Passion

 

            Everyone lives a different life with different interests and with different ideas about right, wrong, and how to treat others. Every person has different influences in their life, have different childhoods, different parents who may or may not have spanked them for their bad behavior. Some children were bullied as they grew up, some children were bullies when they grew up, some children chose the path of being kind to others, and some children chose the path of rebellion and violence.

               All of these things form a person into who they are today. Everyone has different levels of stress in their lives based on what they do for work, with whom they associate, and how they interact with their spouse, if they have one. Most people prefer to have less stress, less opposition, and less animosity from others. If you take a survey with questions built on one’s preference for peace or strife, in most cases people will prefer to have peace in their lives.

               Unless someone is retired, he or she will go to work, or will stay at home and take care of their children, organize their home and deal with the everyday stress of normal life. In most cases it is unavoidable to not have stressful interaction with co-workers, with spam callers, or with random people approaching our front door to share something they believe to be important.

               Life is better for you, for others, and for everyone involved if peace is the foundation in every interaction. When each person only focuses on their passions, their desires for themselves, and being entertained and distracted, the surrounding culture becomes nothing but an exercise in selfishness. In short, seek after peace, seek after doing good for others, and focus on being a good and kind person rather than being selfish.

It's All About Love

 

                If a person is honest with themselves, they should be able to review their life, their interests, how they spend their money, and how they spend their time. An honest review of these things will reveal what we love, what we find important, and what is the focus of our attention. Yes, it is true that we have needs that need to be taken care of, loved ones that need our assistance, and the reality of philanthropy.

               As we see in Holy Scripture, the follower of Christ is called to love God, love his neighbor, and pursue holiness. Is this what we find when we honestly examine and critique our lives, our time, and our use of money? I offer up the challenge to document how you spend your time, how you spend your money, and what you use to entertain yourself. If you are spending more time on social media, on television, or on entertainment in general than you do in worship, in prayer, or in reading Scripture, then you have something terribly misaligned in your life.

               The foundational question in all of this is, “What do you love?” This is easily answered by documenting time, attention, and money. An even better way to approach this question is to bring someone else into the discussion and allow them to draw the conclusion and answer. Another important aspect of this discussion is that of humility, if you are willing to allow someone else to critique your use of time, money, and attention, you will need to be humble and be willing to accept direction and guidance from someone wiser and more experienced than you.

Rejecting Grief

 

            If you have something or someone in your life that is actively moving you away from beauty, away from holiness, and away from personal sacrifice, why would you continue to wallow in grief at their departure? Because we as humans are very limited in our perspective, in our understanding, and in wisdom, we cannot see the long-term goal that God has in place for us. Sometimes things or people will depart, which over a long period of time will prove to be to our benefit.

               Like the athlete who only sees the pain, the discomfort and the struggle of overcoming weight loss, overcoming weakness, and feeling frustration at not making fast enough progress, we need to remember that what is happening at the moment is for our good, for our benefit, and is moving toward a better goal than we can have ever imagined.

               If we can learn to step outside of ourselves, and look at the details from a different perspective, it is wise to gain wisdom and understanding from others who have more experience, more knowledge, and greater wisdom that we do. We need to learn to not see only what we desire and learn to see the change in path, in direction, and the new goal which will make us a better and stronger person.

               This is a matter of humility and acknowledging what we lack. Be very careful from whom you take and follow advice, there are many people who consider themselves wise and experienced, if these people are not helping you move toward goodness, kindness, love, holiness, and concern for others, then you need to step away from them, and find someone who is genuinely wise and experienced.

               Prepare yourself to reject the grief that follows from the loss of someone who you believed to be helping you. To continue to wallow in grief over the loss of someone who has been dragging you down, corrupting you, and feeding your weakness is a foolish position to take. Instead embrace the joy of moving on to something bigger and better, knowing that God is bringing about what is for your benefit.

Intentional Deception

 

            There are at least two versions of ourselves, one of these we put on display for others to see, the other one we keep hidden within ourselves because we are often ashamed of that second version. Most people want others to think well of them, want others to think that everything is going well, and that we are stable, loving, kind, and considerate, rather than self-centered and selfish. With this in mind, we present the best version of ourselves to keep everyone thinking that we have everything together and our lives are in good shape.

               We encounter many different types of people as we move through different social circles, different places of work, and our interaction with our relatives. Thankfully, we often keep our hidden desires from expressing themselves in reality, we do this in order not to get arrested for reacting to how some people treat us. To put it in the simplest of terms, we intentionally deceive others so they think well of us, think highly of us, and do not think poorly of us because of our honest response to unkind words or unkind actions toward us.

               This is where the importance of prayer is vital for our wellbeing. When criminal or abusive ideas drop into our minds, we need to immediately drive away this corruption away from us as quickly as possible. We do this by calling out to God through the intercession of Jesus Christ on our behalf, through the prayers of our guardian angels, and the prayers of others. It is a dangerous thing to dwell on corruption, to dwell on cruelty, or to allow wickedness to seep into us, all of which draws us away from beauty, from light, from love, and from kindness to others.

               Instead of thoughts of hostility, instead of unkind or cruel actions against those who intentionally oppress us, the best response is prayer for this person that they would move away from a life of corruption, away from a life of blind selfishness, and away from perversion and idolatry. Our prayers, our words, and our actions are all tools for positively influencing those around us.

               Do not allow the thoughts, the ideas, and the suggestions of cruelty from the evil ones that surround us move us to impose ugliness or sin toward others. Reject thoughts of evil and instead respond with love, with kindness, and with actions that move others toward that which is good, is right, is beautiful, and is kind.

Will It Be Seen as Beautiful?

 

            The most common response when someone reviews and critiques their own life, their life choices, and their interaction with others typically tends toward forgiveness of self and harsh words and attitude toward others. Historically, the Church has taught that we must be more critical of ourselves and not critical of others. We need to think of others as holier than ourselves, for we know our own weaknesses and we do not know what formed others into who they are today.

               It is a sad reality that others will speak well of us at our funeral, after we have already left behind those we love and possibly departing for eternity before we have completed what we desired to do before we pass into eternity. The Church has always taught us that God gives us every day to repent, to confess, and to strive after holiness and that we must not waste that time in pursuit of pleasure and passions.

               I strongly recommend that you spend a few minutes each day documenting what you have accomplished, how you have positively impacted others, and if you are genuinely on a path toward holiness. Over the last twenty centuries of Christian history, we have learned from holy men and holy women that we do not know how much time we have before we are taken into the presence of God.

               One day we will stand before the dread judgment seat of Christ and will need to answer for everything we did and did not do. Did you spend your time, your energy, and your money on promoting holiness, pursuing righteousness, and pursuing truth? After you have reposed, will others look back on your life and see beauty, see truth, see holiness, and see love? Do you see Jesus in every person that you meet?

               What will others say about you after you have moved into eternity? Were you a good person, did you pursue holiness, did you love and provide for others or were you self-centered, selfish, and a lover of pleasure? After you have begun documenting how you have spent your time, your energy, and your money, do you need to make a change in your life path? If so, start with that change immediately because you do not know if today is your last day.