The Sidewalk of Life

This is a copy of an article I found awhile ago and had been saving to read. Wanted to share it with you so you can read it and think upon it. Be encouraged.

Sometimes as you walk down the sidewalk of life you wind up in a deep hole that is not of your own making.

• If you live on the coast during hurricane season the winds and rains may have come along and damaged your house.


• The company you work for may have gone bankrupt you lost your job.


• You return to your car in the mall parking lot and find that someone has smashed your fender.

Any of these events can place you in a hole of darkness, despair, anger, loss, anxiety, worry, or grief. You did not have anything to do with creating the situation but you must live with it. The hole can indeed be deep and dark, and you have to struggle long and hard to climb out of it.

This is the nature of life. Some things are out of your control. Unexpected events happen. Change always occurs. The most that you can do is adapt to them the best you can. You must struggle out of the hole into which you were thrown and journey on. Hopefully, you grow from such an experience and become a more mature person who is better able to cope with other pitfalls of life.

Have you ever found yourself in exactly the same hole more than once?

• How is it that you always get into the same type of conflict with the boss? He is so negative and critical and always expects so much. She makes you feel miserable.


• Maybe you are in the midst of the exact "word for word" argument with your spouse for the ten thousandth time. He says this and you say that just like you always do and you fall into the hole once again.


• Your son, mother, sister, or brother does that thing that they always do. It pushes your buttons and you respond as you always do. The cycle of conflict begins once again.

You cannot believe that it has happened one more time. You wonder, "Why does this always happen to me? Why do they always do this to me? When will they ever stop? Why can’t they understand what they make me do?" If other people would just "act right" life would go better. You begin to work harder and harder to get others to change.

Fall into the same hole often enough and you may come to a realization. With the frequent occurrence of the same or similar events you sense that these things do not happen by chance. Maybe this repetition is a pattern that is not just inflicted on you solely by others. Such a reoccurrence of events must mean that you are playing a role in creating them.

As we go along the sidewalk of life we all fall into holes of psychological and spiritual distress. Sometimes it seems that we were shoved. Initially, it appears that it is not our fault to be in such a situation once again. However, as we continue in the journey of life we often find ourselves falling into the same hole more than once. When we do so we are given the opportunity of recognizing that there is actually a pattern in our lives. Patterns do not exist until an event happens more than once. A pattern cannot be recognized until we have encountered a situation (in all its various forms) several times. Only with repetition is it possible to see the pattern or cycle. Once the pattern is seen then the possibility of new insight arises.

The next time you find yourself once again in one of life’s familiar holes, and are busy saying:

• "It is not my fault,"


• "Don't blame me."


• "Who is responsible for this?"


• "They are doing it to me again."

Call for a time-out. Now, look to see how you might be responsible for your situation. Ask yourself, "What did I do to get here? What role did I play in creating the circumstances that placed me in this hole?" The terrible truth is that if you are not responsible for being in this hole once again then you are in real trouble. This is because if you are not responsible, it must mean that someone is. Maybe, it is not just one person but a group of people like your coworkers or your family. It is even possible that the entire world has decided to conspire against you. If you are truly not responsible for your current situation, and you do not like being in these recurring holes then you face a dilemma. What you have to do is find out who is making you miserable. Next, you have to change that person, or group, or the entire world to make it or them be exactly the way you want them to be so that you can be okay. Your strategy becomes to change others.

This is the trap of playing, "Let's fix you." Husbands and wives and parents and children often play this game. One spouse shows up at the counselor's office claiming that their mate is the problem. Parents bring in the child saying the child's behavior needs to change. Children say that their parents make them act this way. Employees blame the insensitive boss. The overworked boss criticizes the inefficient employees. No one is responsible for anything.

Playing "Let’s fix you" doesn’t work. Have you ever tried to change someone? Of course you have. Maybe just change a small child making them just a little more the way you want. Perhaps you have tried to make a few minor adjustments in another person’s personality. It seems that if you just gave this person a little bit of a "tune up" then you might be able to live with them. Did you succeed? The answer is, "No!" Changing others is an extremely difficult if not impossible task. The other person may actually try to cooperate but often cannot make or sustain the change. Your effort is directed in the wrong direction.

Fall into the same hole enough times and you might awaken to the true nature of the problem. You are responsible for being there. You played some role in the process. You must change. Learning this is good news. If you can find out what you are doing and stop then you can avoid these holes into which you keep falling. Having some responsibility for your problems means that you have control. All you have to do is to change yourself and the situation can improve. While this task is very hard, it is at least possible. Changing others is not.

• When you find yourself once again in that same bad relationship, but with a different person, you need to realize that it is you who is making the same mistake over and over. Maybe it is time to ask yourself, "What am I doing?" "How did I get here once again?"

• When you are in that same tired old argument, ask what did you do to get there? When you wake up with a hangover once again, ask what went wrong with my resolve to never drink again?

When you discover what you are doing, or why you are doing it, then change is possible. You can begin taking responsibility for yourself.

If you change yourself your experience of the situation will change. Surprisingly, if you do this, the other people you were wanting to change may change as well. You cannot change others by directly trying to influence them, but if you change yourself then they may be forced to change as well. Once you are different and can maintain that difference then others around you are given the opportunity to change in relation to you. By effectively changing ourselves we may actually change another person, a group, and perhaps, the world. But we must start with ourselves. When you start with yourself a good place to begin is with your Attitude.

Once your responsibility is seen you can change. You can begin avoiding the holes on that street of life. You are now able to see what is coming, because you know your pattern. This knowledge gives you control and you can intentionally respond to life in a different manner. A different response gives new possibilities.

When someone invites you into a familiar hole, you do not automatically enter. Your friend, who has been awaiting your arrival to leave for a party, sarcastically says, "Well, you are late again!" Your typical response is to defensively say, "Must you always complain?" Now when you see that familiar hole of an argument and a bad evening looming, you make a different choice. You realize that your friend has had the legitimate frustration of waiting and has also been worried about you. You speak to these issues and say, "I am sorry to be late. Traffic was terrible. I couldn’t get to a phone. I know that you were wondering what happened to me." Your choice allows your friend to acknowledge the concern and apprehension rather that just voice the frustration of waiting. The hole of another repetitive fight is avoided, and the evening goes well.

Finally, you change streets. You change your inner dialogue and behavior so completely that the old pattern no longer occurs. Once on the new street, you must be careful because, unfortunately, this street will have its own holes. It will have holes that you have never seen before. But you now know the rules about the "holes" in the sidewalk. The first time that you encounter one you should ask, "How am I responsible?" It may be that you are not responsible, but the sooner you ask this question, the sooner you can take charge of your life.

This process is like a spiral that leads us upward towards psychological and spiritual wholeness. The sidewalks of life do not go in a straight line. They may not be flat. They may be like a trail that winds round and round a mountain until it reaches the top. Each time you break out of an old pattern of thinking and living, you begin a new switchback that leads you ever upwards to the fundamental goal of life.

Fall into enough of the holes in the sidewalks of life and you may become whole. Through the lessons of the holes of life, you approach wholeness. Becoming whole means striving to be all that you can be. All potentialities are explored. You know what you do, and why you do it. Choices are made, and you are responsible for these choices.

The holes in the sidewalk are actually invitations to grow.

Are you open to the invitation?

Strive for Integrity, Not Popularity in Social Media

This post came about as I was talking to someone recently about people I have noticed who have been rallying others to follow them and their "club" in order to be part of the cool in-group. This post was also inspired by a few that I know of who continue to bash others online in an effort to raise their ego to a higher level so they will be welcomed into in-groups that encourage such behavior. I am all for social media and the wonderful ways it can be used to connect so many people that would never have had the chance to meet offline, but there are also times when the tools of social media can be used in ruthless manners. Everyone has the right to use the tools the way they wish, but I have seen way too many cases where Twitter, blogs, Facebook, etc. can be used as weapons intended to ruin someone's reputation or spread false rumors. This is wrong, people! People can make too many assumptions about others without knowing the real facts. This is even more so the case when they have never met a person they may make assumptions about. This is a real problem in today's society as social media continues to grow. I have already talked about cyber-bullying, but there are also cases where social media is used in a way to stroke the ego of some who use it to boast about their accomplishments and how everyone else is beneath them.

It is true that in today's world, "the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." (2 Timothy 4:3,4)

Integrity is a trait that is missing in today's use of social media in many cases. Too often, people can hide behind an online profile and talk about how great they are or how others should follow them because everyone else is falling for the same scheme. If you don't follow these "behind the curtain" manipulators, then you are considered an outsider or dismissed as not being part of the in-crowd. And in some extreme cases, if you don't do what some of these "behind the curtain" people want you to do, then they may resort to intimidation tactics or attempts to smear your reputation among their seduced followers. Matthew 7:15,16 speaks truth where it says: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits."

How does one ensure they are not led to believe in some people who use social media in a way to create a false sense of reality? How can you protect yourself? Here are a few tips:

1) Don't believe everything that one may share online about others. Never take someone's words to be the whole truth. Check with others to understand if this is truth being spoken or just assumptions not based on facts. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 says: "Test everything; hold fast what is good."

2) Understand that there are some who like to share things about others just so they can raise their ego to the same level as the false prophets in this world. Some will say things just to get others stirred up since they thrive on conflict and useless banter.

As I shared earlier, I am all for the tools of social media to be used for good in building relationships and connecting with others online. The sharing of information via social media tools is unbelievable in how it can enable so many to learn from one another. That is where the usefulness of social media comes into play. What I do speak out against though is where social media can be used as weapons of destruction and to mess with people's lives spreading false rumors. Those who practice such tactics should not even be allowed to be representatives of organizations that share how to use social media in a good manner as they are in reality two-faced about how they use the tools. It is time to speak up against such negative uses of social media and call out those who use social media in such deceitful manners.

Ted Engstrom writes: “The world needs people who cannot be bought; whose word is their bond; who put character above wealth; who possess opinions and a will; who are larger than their vocations; who don’t hesitate to take chances; who won’t lose their individuality in a crowd; who will be as honest in small things as they are in great things; who will make no compromise with wrong; whose ambitions are not confined to their own selfish desires; who will not say they do it ‘because everybody else does it;’ who are true to their friends through good report and evil report, in adversity as well as in prosperity; who do not believe that shrewdness, cunning and hard-heartedness are the best qualities for winning success; who are not afraid to stand for the truth even when it’s unpopular; who say ‘no’ with emphasis, even though the rest of the world says ‘yes.’”

Stand for integrity. Don't ever waver from this principle.