Have you ever heard the warnings of the many medicine choices advertised? Their side effects and potential pitfalls would make us all start considering those innocent commercials as potential death traps. My mom and I were discussing past medicines, and I will not list them here, but you should research those medicinal products of the past. We were taking so many chances…and probably never realized it!
This morning, a headline about a founder of such-and-such was once down on those so-and-sos. Don’t go filling in the blanks and think I’m ragging on their products as we use them today! Unless you read the article, you’ll never guess who I’m talking about. I’m not, can’t, and will not go down that pathway. The past contains a history most of us are not proud of, and we cannot undo what was done except affirm we’re not going there again.
If today is any indication, all you need to do is look at the present, and you can get a hint of what the past was like. Slander. Lies. Mudslinging. And I’m just talking politics!
We are not getting any better, no matter what you may think. Our nature is fraught with finger pointing, blame, wrong choices, and horrible decisions. Yesterday. Today. Forever. We never get everything right, and much of what we do will be uncovered in the future by cultural archeologists who will shake their collective heads and wonder what the past was like!
I will not be alive to learn the effects of most social and moral turnovers. I’ve said it before and can only say it again:
I will be the best “me” that “me” knows how.
What Changes Us
Perhaps the biggest change we see comes from the challenges we experience.
Yesterday, I stepped out to buy something for my home office. I’ve used the product in the past and know the price is around $25. It was nearly four times that cost! I refused to spend my money and looked for alternatives. I found what I need on Amazon, and it will be delivered Sunday. Cost? $27. Taxes bumped it up to $30.
What changes us? The challenges we are faced with and how we handle them!
If we see something wrong, we should do something about it. That makes me consider how best to move forward, and I now have an eye for those needs. There’s no way I can help every situation, but I will not back down from what I feel is the greatest change we need to see.
A friend of mine is a lot like me. We never meet strangers and love to chat about shared experiences. He met a couple running a store in a favored part of the mountains back East. Through these several years of connection, comes to find out the man knows someone else my friend introduced to Christ a generation ago! A few words and moments show you have an impact on the lives you interact with today, and who knows what the long-range effect will be. This had a happy ending.
People in my past have made a great change in me. There have been encouragers, coaches, teachers, neighbors, pastors, and family members. What I should not discount, no matter the present interactions may be, how we interact with others is the most important challenge we face.
Maybe, along with the challenges we experience, are the challenges we allow to affect us.
“I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.” ~Helen Keller
Maybe our own world is not as bad as others, and that challenge of experiencing differently changes us. We don’t always have it as bad as we think it is.
When We Truly See Ourselves
I’m watching the world change and can only surmise it’s a spiritual change not to my liking. We don’t want to accept how far we’ve fallen, grown, slipped, and dug out of the negative past. I believe we’re creating a new negative world that will someday be viewed under harsh analysis.
I cannot change the past. My responsibility is for me and the world to whom my life can be lived and examined. I’m responsible for who I am today.
I went to a local meat market yesterday to pick up some steaks. One dollar difference in the cost per pound, but one was “Choice,” and the other was “Premium.” Was the Premium worth a buck more in price per pound? They looked the same. What’s the difference between the two? Again, they looked the same. I chose to save a buck and enjoyed the experience.
The only way we can know the choices before us is often based on how we choose.
“The real man smiles in trouble,
gathers strength from distress,
and grows brave by reflection.”
~Thomas Paine
Before you plow ahead blindly, you must still know yourself. I can characterize myself in a box that includes many others, but we are not all the same. We have different pasts, actions of the present, and a future that is still a little strained. The best way out of the past is to make a better “you.”
What Was The Past Really Like?: I cannot change the past. My responsibility is for me and the world to whom my life can be lived and examined. I'm responsible for who I am today. Click To Tweet