Thursday, September 23, 2010

How Mark C's It...Personal Responsibility, Compromise, and Failure

DISCLAIMER: The following viewpoints are not those of the blogger, but a friend of his. If this point of view upsets you, you may vent, but don’t yell at the person who posted them. Start a discussion, express and opinion, but don’t yell at the person who didn’t write it, that is just senseless…

Personal Responsibility:

Now here is a topic that can cause some problems, in our own lives, as this has been a big one in mine.

What exactly IS Personal Responsibility? Well, wouldn’t we just accept the premise that it is being responsible for one’s own person? That would make sense, but making sense isn’t what seems to be the big thing, or the right thing to do any more.

Why accept responsibility when we can blame other people? It makes us look good, and we feel better about it also. It isn’t MY fault that the economy sucks and I can’t get a job, right? It isn’t MY fault that I live in a small town with no real opportunities, or real growth, right? It isn’t MY fault…, but what if it is?

How many times have we found ourselves on the slippery slope of self pity? Saying that it isn’t our fault, when if we look back at the circumstances that brought us to our current location in life, maybe had we done something different, as we KNEW we should have, the result would have been different, and we might be in a better position?

But it is easier to blame others for our misery, instead of sucking it up and saying NO MORE.

My mother walked out on three different husbands, but it was never her fault. To her it never mattered that she married two of them to get out of circumstances that she put herself into by poor decisions. Her third husband put up with her because he was tired of being alone. He deserved better than that, as did she.

So along with personal responsibility, we have to look at compromise. What have we done in our lives to compromise our thoughts, beliefs, or values, that may have helped lead to our lack of responsibility?

Compromise


Wow, now two topics, Compromise AND Personal Responsibility. And yes, it is easier to point to others and see their faults, but what about ours? How would life be if we were more concerned about dealing with our own lives, and our own faults instead of how celebrities have screwed up THEIR lives this week?

I do a lot of complaining myself about my location in life. But if I am honest with myself, I have to admit, that I am personally responsible for where I am. Had I treated my last employer back home with more respect, then the same respect they had shown me, I wouldn’t have been fired. They wouldn’t have told lies at my unemployment hearing, and I wouldn’t have been forced to move to where I have family and a place to go. (Their treatment of me included a vice president of the company cussing me out in my ear because I wouldn’t move from my home in Orange County to Los Angeles)


Failure

So, I failed in my responsibility by allowing myself to get sucked into a disrespectful work environment. I should have sucked it up, dealt with it, WHILE getting a better job.

My personal responsibility to my faith, I have failed BIGTIME there, and allow myself to be sucked into the pity party of feeling deserted by God. And I know in my heart of hearts that God is right there, is right HERE with me, even as I type this. I am not saying that I am contemptuous of God, but of myself. Allowing myself to go to the depths of despair when all I have to do is make the simple steps to right my faith, and trust in God again.

True, we all feel that, at times, God has failed us, and some just walk away. I cannot, my faith, or lack thereof, has been a part of my life since early childhood. I joke that I was raised Southern Baptist, but God forgave me. Baptized at 12, went to a Christian College, where again, I took a stand that got me kicked out. Personal Responsibility to me should have been completing my education, not taking a stand that if God says I can lift my hands in prayer, Azusa Pacific’s Tim Purga couldn’t tell me I couldn’t. Pride took me down a road that got me kicked out for taking a ‘righteous’ stand.

So, here I sit, at a crossroads in my life again, looking for work, not wanting to be in my current location, and just complaining, instead of taking the time, of which I have more than an abundance of, and listing to the, sometimes, small still voice of God, as to what direction HE wants me to take, instead of flailing like a drowning man in two feet of water, who doesn’t realize, all he has to do is stand up.

So, where does this leave me? Some may see this as a pity party, but I am using my own life as an example, or a warning, but it is also a kick in the butt to get things going in the right way, and manner, that I know I am called to do, and in a direction that is far better then what I have been doing.

I encourage any and all who may read this to do the same. Challenge yourselves to let go of the pity, accept the responsibility, and go forward. For, I have found in the past, when we accept our own responsibilities in life, we lift our heads a little higher, stand a little straighter, and can do more, with less, then we had thought we were capable of.





These are my thoughts, and how Mark C’s it.





William Lane Craig offers personal experience and hardships with failure; click here.


Bruce Little speaks on the topic: God, Evil and Suffering. Check it out here.


More resources here.


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