Doing the Right Thing

 

In some situations, someone will do something unkind, cruel, or selfish to us. Our usual response is to respond in kind, we are inclined to respond with similar unkindness, anger, or violence. The opposite response will usually elicit a confused observation, which should reveal your true nature, if you want someone to be kind to you, then you need to be kind to them and to everyone else in your life.

Some people have great wealth, great comfort, and healthy connections with good people, all of these things can and should be used to make life better for us, for our families, for our loved ones, and for others who we may not know. How we use our time, how we use our money, and how we interact with others reveals the true nature of our hearts, our souls, and our minds.

If everything in your life is about you, is about your comfort, and about making life as easy as possible, then you are probably approaching life in the wrong way. Take a few moments, hours, days or weeks to consider how you live, how you speak, and how you spend your money. Sometimes we will find ourselves in a situation where we see someone merely existing and not having what is needed for a good and healthy life.

Find a notebook, create a list, identify how and where you spend your time and money, and consider what this says about you as a person. Do you buy things that you don’t really need, while there are others you know who are suffering and live a life from which they cannot escape? Set aside your own comforts, your own pleasures, and your empty distraction, doing so will allow you to help others who have genuine needs.

Defining and Articulating Success

 

Everyone knows a large number of people and it is uncommon to find a common definition of success among these people. As we form our thinking, our actions, and our plans for the future, we need to find good, wise, and excellent people to influence, direct us, and guide us as we do our best to move forward in life.

Don’t allow the emptiness, the vanity, and the shallowness of the culture around you to control and direct how you think, how you live, and how you define the words that will directly impact how you move in life. Learn how to put in effort, put in energy, how you spend your money and how you spend your time, all of these will directly impact the quality of your life.

Be aggressive and forthright in how you think, how you act, and how you define words. If you can succinctly define success and learn how to pursue that success for the rest of your life, your intentionality will allow you to achieve your desired goals. Take several hours, days, or weeks to think about how you define success, and when you have specifically articulated this definition, write it down, share it with others who are wise and successful, and then put in the effort to achieve your definition of success.

Success needs to be more than simply being wealthy, being comfortable, and being distracted by empty pleasure and entertainment. Learn to be content with having your basic needs met, learn how to provide for and support others, and learn to be generous to make your culture and your social circles good and strong.

Input and Output

 

            There are many different metaphors that can be used to communicate the outcome from what you put into yourself. Food is a very good example of this, if you eat fast food, highly processed foods, soda, high salt and high fat foods, you will not enjoy a body that is healthy, that is strong, or that will give you the energy you need to successfully reach your desired goals. Your diet should not be based on ease, on simplicity, or on whatever is the least expensive. Pursue and take into yourself that which will give you nutrition, strength, and all of the vitamins, fiber, oils, and quality that will make you healthy.

               If you find yourself spending most of your time being distracted by social media, by mindless and silly entertainment, it would be wise to make positive changes to your mental diet, which will give you the strength you need to achieve your goals. Instead of snacking, doom scrolling, or watching numberless videos online, go outside, enjoy the fresh air, walk for a few miles each day and spend time interacting with people of good character.

               A good pattern to develop for your use of time and energy can be found by documenting how you spend your time, how you spend your money, and with whom you interact. Be diligent in documenting what you do with your time, choose a notebook devoted solely to recording your activities and use of time. Be faithful in what you take into your body in terms of diet, what you take into your mind in terms of entertainment, and what you spend your free time thinking about.

               After documenting these things for at least a month, be strong and brave enough to share your findings with someone who is older, wiser, and more responsible than you, so as to receive input from them. Do not allow pride to control your path forward, instead be willing to make changes in your use of time, in whatever you take into yourself, and be willing to become better, stronger, and wiser than you are at this moment. Humility is one of the best attitudes to take on, it is when you realize that you need to become someone better and wiser than life will improve.

A Path Where Light Doesn't End

 

When someone reaches their teenage years, decisions need to be made and hopefully when one finds themself in this situation, they will seek input from others, knowing that the man who has only himself as a teacher will be bound to make mistakes. Every person moves out of one social circle and into another one, and will find himself in multiple social circles, interacting with many different types of people. Unfortunately, everyone we meet will not necessarily be honest about their response to you, their opinion of you, and will put themselves first rather than offer something of value to help you improve.

When someone is walking in the darkness, he may stumble, he may accidentally drive his toe into a piece of furniture, or he may step on something that remained obscure because of the darkness. There is very little worse than stepping on a Lego while wearing socks or being barefoot. The one who is wise will seek guidance from others, will pursue a path that is well lit, and that will lead to love, peace, joy, and glory.

It is a sad reality that some people will choose to engage in the use of substances that will negatively influence their ability to think clearly and make good choices. In very much the same way, some people will follow input and direction from others who lack wisdom, who lack experience and if one views the quality of their life, one can see that their decisions have only led to failure and confusion.

Find the path that will lead to love, peace, joy, and success. Unless you have immersed yourself in seeking knowledge, seeking wisdom, and seeking experience, don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can figure it out on your own. There have been thousands and thousands of people all throughout history from whom we can learn, who we can imitate, and who create a great example for us to follow.

One does not look to others who have declined into a state of abject failure, poverty, and suffering. Find those who exhibit wise choices, live a good life, and pursue a lifestyle that is not focused on comfort and wealth. Love others like you love yourself.

Pretending Everything is Alright

 

            Social interaction is a normal part of everyday life. We see friends, we see relatives, we see acquaintances and neighbors make decisions that impact themselves and impact others. Sometimes those decisions are made for all the wrong reasons, oftentimes those decisions come from a foundation of selfishness and greed.

               Looking in from the outside, we can see that one of these people look back and regret the choices they have made, and see the consequences of those decisions. Aside from self-deception, those of us who are watching from a distance can see that these people are simply pretending like everything is good, alright, and acceptable.

               There are at least two responses to situations like this, one, we can be critical, we can be judgmental, and we can condemn them for being focused only on their own desires without concern for the impact of their decisions upon others. Two, we can remain silent and watch them decline into despair and regret, knowing that any words we offer will be rejected.

               The imagination is a terrible thing; everyone imagines a possible reality in which all of their problems disappear and are resolved by the promises that someone else made to them. Too many people think of themselves as flawless, wise, and on a path that will lead to happiness and fulfillment. The person who begins down a path toward an imaginary end, will one day realize that they made multiple bad choices, that they burned bridges that cannot be repaired with a goal of satisfying themselves while ignoring others.

A Vessel Void of Value

 

            If someone takes a few minutes and searches through their home, they will find a great number of containers that are designed to hold specific things, and other vessels that you would only use in certain situations and not for storing other things. We see an example of this throughout the Old Testament; some things were designed and identified to be used only for holy use and not for common use.

               The tabernacle that was designed by God and given to the people of Israel to be used during worship and sacrifice could only be used for religious purposes. The ark of the covenant was not even to be touched by human hands and was only for containing the written law, Aaron’s rod that budded, and was topped by two golden angels.

               We have a similar situation in the New Testament regarding the Virgin Mary; YHWH sent the angel Gabriel to communicate the message that she was chosen to be the vessel for bringing about the incarnation of the Son of God. Just like one would not use containers in one’s kitchen for holding unclean items but only for food items.

               I encourage everyone reading this brief collection of thoughts to consider your own life, and what you put in your heart and mind. You need to understand that if you have been baptized into the people of God, you are no longer your own and should only be taking into yourself those things that are holy and will identify you as different from the culture around you.

               Sometimes it is a sad reality that some people will make the decision to label themselves as a follower of Christ, but then live a life that is not holy, pure, or righteous. What kind of vessel are you? Are you filled with and contain only those things that are holy, or do you allow corruption, perversion, and hatred within yourself? Work hard to be faithful to your claims about yourself and be a vessel used only for those things of value.

Our Words and Our Actions

 

            Unfortunately, far too many people only think of themselves when they speak or when they act. The things we say and the things we do will have an impact on those around us. Because we do not know the way others were raised, the way others treated them when they were children, or if others had parents who loved them, we need to remember that those in our social circles did not necessarily have the benefits, the love, and the care from others.

               If you spend all of your time, your energy, and your money only on making your own life more pleasant, you are living a life that is selfish and incorrectly directed. As we are seeing in the news from the UK, the ‘Gang Rape Inquiry’ that was recently published and made available for anyone to read, the psychological, emotional, and physical trauma that these 250,000 white British girls endured for the past seventy years is very difficult to comprehend.

               These decades of abuse are a great example of how someone’s worldview directly impacts the quality of life of those around them. These decades of selfishness and contrary worldview to the West have destroyed the joy and the reality of a good life for a massive number of girls and their families. For someone to be abducted from the street and abused for multiple months by large group of strangers will obviously have a seriously negative impact on their overall wellbeing.

               On a much smaller scale, the words we speak to others and the way we treat others will have an impact upon them, but not to the same degree as what we have recently learned what has been taking place in the UK for so many decades. We all need to consider our goals, our plans, and what we hope to achieve as we move through life. If we are seeking to only please ourselves, find satisfaction for ourselves, at the expense of the wellbeing of others, then we are aligning our lives in a very bad way.

               Destroying the psychology, emotions, and health of someone else just so that we can feed our own pleasures and end goals exposes a terrible way to live one’s life. One could easily say that when someone introduces a destructive approach to life that is contrary to the normal life of the culture in which you live, he ought not be part of that culture and should relocate himself somewhere else that is in agreement with his preferred approach to life.