The hand your delt

I know I only posted once last month. I was trying to get one up in that last week of November. I actually tried several times but the post wouldn't pull together. Hopefully tonight it will!

For a couple weeks now I've been working on a story I might be entering in a short story contest that's coming up. The story has come together surprisingly easily and the characters have felt allot more real then I thought would be possible in under 3000 words.

At the start of the story you meet a little girl in Africa who has just lost her mom and will now be placed in an orphanage along with her infant brother. Mean while in America a sixteen year old girl has just found out she's pregnant. She's under extreme pressure and hasn't heard from her boyfriend since the night they hooked up. A well to do girlfriend counsels her, to not tell anyone and have the abortion. The idea appeals to the distraught girl, if for no other reason then that way it's over and she no longer has to deal with it. But it's easier said then done and her background rebukes the idea. In a lame attempt to come up with another solution she brings up that her and her boyfriend weren't total strangers. Maybe he deserved to know. The girlfriend interrupts by saying

"Beth! You need to stop thinking about Eric. You need to think about yourself now. What will happen if you don’t do this?"

First of all how odd that my own fictional character could teach me something...but there it is. "You need to think about yourself now". It's a common phrase of counsel. Maybe even more commonly put is "You need to do what's best for yourself."

I can only assume that this line of thinking comes from the common fascination with psychology. I'm not apposed to psychology as a rule but there does seem to be a flaw in the philosophy of many practicing it. I feel slightly hypocritical writing this having an interest myself in the subjects sociology and behavioral science, but I think the therapy part of it is where we go to far...or at least can go to far. Granted people have real pain and have experienced things that make the rest of there lives difficult but that doesn't give them an excuse. Actually it does give them excuse and that's what the problem is. And even that isn't much of a problem if you leave God out of it. But lately I've been forced to consider this horrifying thought. What if Jesus had done what was best for himself?

I truly believe to be past this time in my life but there was a point not to long ago where things were not easy and I had a heavy sense of superiority toward almost everyone around me. Thankfully I wasn't familiar with this line of thinking at that time. Looking back it's scary to think where I could have gone if I'd had someone telling me to do what's best for myself; because I genuinely felt that things were un-fairly difficult. In being completely honest with myself I can see that I was in a vulnerable situation, and could have easily turned down a bad path. I can only thank God for seeing me through it all.

All this brings to me a huge sense of concern and protectiveness for anyone feeling wronged. I don't know how many times I have heard one of my friends proudly tell me, they've forgiven there parents. This is a hard thing to hear because forgiveness is necessary and the person in question is feeling so good about the difficult step they've just taken; but maybe they have now just created a feeling of superiority to there parent. Not a healthy place to be.

With my new understanding of all this, I hope to be able to be able to truly help some people through tough situations and not just offer them the guidance they can get from facebook flair or Internet quizzes. the difficulty is, I'm also learning it's always dangerous ground to be offering guidance. But just as telling someone to take care of themselves pulls away from Christ the answer to there problem is to pull them towards him.

The gift of compassion that God gives us sometimes trips me up. I want to help everyone and try and fix there problems. The problem is I'm inadequate. The solution, I'm learning, is to not try and give people healing, but to lead them to the healer. To not teach, but to lead others to my Rabbi. To not let myself get convinced that my love is enough for someone lonely but to show them the all fulfilling love of Christ!

Just thought I'd share the thought! Love,

-Lorain

Lie: "Sometimes you have to do what's best for yourself"
Truth: Instead you can...Cast your burdens upon the lord and he will sustain you -psalms 55:22