This thought popped into my mind this morning after perusing through my ritual reads.
No one cares for me as I care. Nope. No one.
The opposite is equally true, probably.
No one cares for you as you care for yourself.
It feels like we’re a bunch of selfish people, but the reality is we should care for ourselves and make sure we are living and doing what’s right. Pick on your relationships, finances, health, or mental status. We should not depend on others to make the right choices for us. We may need advice along the way, but the real tragedy is when we turn the responsibility over to someone else. Can you trust them? Should you?
What am I trying to say? If It Is To Be, It Is Up To Me…
Last night, my blog, this site you are reading, was continually going up and down. Working. Then not. Since a hosting site maintains it, and a tool was notifying me of the status, the only thing I could do about it was to make a phone call, begin an online chat, or send an email. There was nothing I could do. Honestly, I was dependent on someone else. A trustworthy agent that I’ve given responsibility to.
This made me think about self-hosting. A computer server at my home where I maintain all the pieces and parts of a full-time computer that can be accessed every minute of the day from anywhere around the globe. I would need to buy and subscribe to software to manage it, security to protect it, and keep everything organized for operating efficiency.
Have you seen my schedule?
Nope. So, I pay a small fee for a hosting company, and they do a pretty good job. Right now? My site is up. What was happening? Probably a series of updates that lasted all night long. Peace of mind. At least I didn’t have to do it!
Sometimes, we depend on others to maintain a portion of our life. I’m in charge of my health choices. My doctor can only respond as I allow him. He’s a good doctor. Faithful to a fault. He can only do what I’m willing to allow, and any prescribed action works only as well as I’m willing to let them by being faithful myself.
The past few years have seen aging catch up to me. My knee? I had surgery after a nearly 50-year-old incident in my teen years. Car wreck? Messed up my back and irritated the sciatica. 2.5 years later, I still don’t have the strength to do what I took for granted. This may have been the cause of my plantar fasciitis on the same foot from which I had surgery, jammed the brake pedal during the accident, and messed with my sciatica.
Catch the drift?
Often, life catches up to us and piles up like snow in a wintry season. We must be responsible for our own good choices and not depend on others to lead us the right way when their only thought might be to go astray.
It’s like my daily habit of reading, writing, and handling business. If it is to be, it is up to me.
This morning, I think through this thought as I prepare myself for church. My message is ready. I’m wide awake and responsible to myself to do what I intended to do when I prepared. I cannot force anyone to be there, but I can trust that others are making good decisions this morning.
But wait!
I can do all things through Christ… Thanks for the reminder, Paul. (Philippians 4:13)
I trust in the Lord and lean not on my own understanding… Thanks, Solomon. (Proverbs 3:5)
I am a student of learning and do it better when I lean on Jesus… Thanks, Jesus. (Matthew 11:28-30)
I pray you will have a better attitude of your own accountability to yourself when you handle life.
If it is to be, it is up to me.
Thank you for reading.
Please share with others.
It helps me get my book written!