Indulgence

They say that one of the signs of being a person that rises above the rest is adaptability. Looking at change, adversity, disappointment, and seeing not failure or frustration, but opportunity; hope that something better will come as a result of the new, unforseen path that life inevitably takes.

Still, letting go is difficult. Attaching yourself to ideas, to institutions, to plans that can change within the blink of an eye is a risk for everyone. Allowing those same ideas, institutions and plans to evolve--possibly into something you would never have originally contemplated is difficult. In an odd way, those intangible investments are a part of you, and to see them tossed to the wayside is even painful, and certainly discouraging. You want to indulge yourself--to refuse to change, to stand still and appreciate the comfort of the plans that you have invested in.

Unfortunately, we're not here to indulge our pride. Nor are we here to avoid risk. We're here to change the world, and that cannot be accomplished by resisiting change, cowering from adversity, or caving to frustration. We need to let go and follow where the changes in life lead--as James says, "Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." As all things lay in the hands of our God, how can we desire our original path over the new one that presents itself?

Sigh. Knowing this truth doesn't make it easier. But, hopefully, its enough to make us act; truth used to be enough to compel men to act. Now we have surrendered the idea of truth, as Screwtape says, so that we have conflicting "truths" floating simultaneously in our heads without ever realizing the dilemma that places us in. However--this is a truth...and indulgence is false hope, a fool's pride. And if we are ever to grow, we cannot indulge ourselves forever.

I am flawed...but I am cleaning up so well.