Saturday, July 29, 2017

LIVING LIFE DEFENSIVELY

Sorry!
I don't know.
Are you sure?
I'm not certain.
What am I supposed to do?
What do people expect of me?
Do my neighbors think poorly of me?
Why?

And the list goes on.  An on.  And on. Do you recognize any of it?

Have you ever wondered why bad things happen to you?  Have you ever asked yourself why it is that other people seem to have what you can't obtain? Why this?  Why that?  Why?!

If any of this resonates with you, I'm guessing you're a tad like me in some ways. 

You're living life in the defensive mode.

I'll speak for myself.

I wake up, tired.  Gotta go to the bathroom.  I dutifully drink my 2 glasses of water.  After 30 minutes, I eat breakfast.  Time to get ready for work.  I go.  I work.  I come home.  I make dinner.  I veg out on the computer for a while.  I go to bed.

And it starts all over again.

Isn't life exciting?

NO.  No, it's not appealing at all when you have nothing to live for.  Day after day, we do the same thing.  We don't break out of our pre-determined mold.  We can't.  We have become victims of the mundane. 

Why? Does it have to be that way?

We do that because we are allowing ourselves to live life in a defensive mode.  Do I hear some people saying things like; "But I can't help it!?!" 

That's what I usually say to myself.  I can't help it!  I HAVE to go to work or the bills won't get paid.  I HAVE to drink my stupid water.  I HAVE to eat!  I HAVE to, I HAVE to, I HAVE TO!

Yeah, you and I do have to do a lot of things.  But I'll be honest.  When I add up all the time it takes to do the 'have to's'...I still have some time left over.  

Then I say something like, I really DON'T have time.  You don't understand, there are simply NOT enough hours in the day to do all that I need to do!

Can anybody other than myself, relate to any of this?

I was actually in church, listening to a message.  I admit that my mind does wander a bit...even when the message is really good.  Like today.  In spite of that, all of the sudden I had a random thought strike me.  It came from nowhere and was very unexpected.  Or maybe Someone placed that thought in my head.  

"YOU'RE LIVING A DEFENSIVE LIFE"

Huh?  What?  Where did that thought come from?  This is not what the message was about, but it WAS what God wanted me to hear.  I know it.

"Shay, you are living a defensive life.  It doesn't have to be that way.  You can be pro-active if you really want to.  You can."

And those thoughts have continued for hours and hours.  I realized I need to learn what it means to be pro-active.  What does it mean to live an offensive life?  I suppose I am so afraid of being 'offensive' that I have relegated that very word to the garbage heap.  

Neither you or I have to be offensive in order to lead a life on the offense. It's time for us to think about what that means to each of us.  It's time for us to stop...

LIVING LIFE DEFENSIVELY.