A new day ...or trite'r us

Galatians 6:3 - 6:5 For if a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each man test his own work, and then he will take pride in himself and not in his neighbor. For each man will bear his own burden.

Read this passage last night. The part that hit me was the section that spoke to "let each man test his own work". At first glance, it looks to be a rather selfish admonition: just worry about yourself. But really, it kind of harkens back to a lesson you learn as a kid. I'm sure you've heard it, "If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you?" It speaks to personal responsibility, to the idea of worry about the log in your own eye, not the speck in your neighbor's eye. It means that no matter how anyone else acts, you are responsible for how you act. You are not measured on a curve, based on how holy your neighbor leads his life. You are measured on an absolute. You can do nothing to change someone else's behavior, but you do have control over how you act and react. And this is where I've been falling down. I'm been blaming my unhappiness on everyone but myself. Management sucks. Friends are unfaithful. Family is hypercritical. But the question remains, am I or am I not responsible for my own life? Am I or am I not responsible for my own happiness? My obligation is to live my life the best way I know how. Yes, storms will come. Yes, circumstances will be sucky. But my reaction is my choice. My life is my choice. I can focus on what is good or get caught up in the sucky. And just because all the cool kids are doing it is not an acceptable answer for when I behave less than I was made to be. I am to be a child of G-d, acting in a manner that would please my Father. If I get caught up in the junk and allow my behavior to be junk, I can't justify my behavior with that childhood excuse of everybody's doing it. Time to grow up.

Anyway, if you choose to continue reading my blog, you'll probably see a change in what I post. I want to try something new. I want to try to work out my spirituality by writing it down. It will probably hold little interest to anyone but me, so I wanted to warn you ahead of time. I want to use it to try to be the person I know I can be, not the person I am. Lest you think I'm turning into a holy-roller, one of the things that separates me from the church right now is that I can't stand the hypocrisy that I see exhibited by the most "overt" Christians. I think most folks who are in your face forget this particular passage in Galatians. It's so much easier to criticize others than it is to fix yourself. Gee, seems to me that this is the issue Galatians is attacking. Anyway, Peace to you all. I'll understand if you find this dull as dirt.