people often expect life to be a piece of cake. i'm not sure why. if there is one thing that i've learned, it's not easy and i don't think that it was meant to be easy. something else that i've seen, when we don't get our way, we make decisions to get our way as soon possible. instead of dealing with the situation, we try to go around it -- we prefer to do that than to have to deal with the matter head in. sounds good in theory, but what i've learned is that 'going around' typically leads to someone compromising something, somewhere, along the way. compromise, can be painful. not immediately, but eventually. in genesis 25, esau gives up his birth right for some food. jacob trades him soup for the rest of his future. a bowl of 'instant goodness' was far better than the rest of his future that was before him. instead of dealing with the situation, like a grown up, he simply caved in and did what he had to do to get what he wanted. it was as simple as that. i bet you that esau didn't even think about the significance of his decision. the people it would impact, the lives it would change -- the life that he would no longer have. the part that kills me, it's over a bowl of soup.
i know it sounds silly, but in retrospect, how often have i compromised something great for something instant? how many times did i see that 'thing' that i 'needed' to have and i did what needed to be done in order to take hold of it - without thinking who it would affect and how it would affect them. we sometimes forget that our decisions don't just affect us, but those that we live in community with. a bowl of soup. something nice and warm for the moment.
the part that sucks is that a few hours later, he was probably hungry again. then what? what do you do when the 'food' has run out but you are hungry again?
what have you found the toughest areas of compromise to be in?
what kind of safe guard to you have in place to protect you from not compromising in these areas?
how do you continue to move forward in your resolve?
5 comments:
sometimes there's a shield around me. or sometimes i want to believe something. so i force myself to believe it, which is where i compromise.
I've compromised plenty.
I'm working on it. Silly as it sounds, I've learned to listen to my gut feelings. I can confidently say that 99% of the time I know what the right thing to do is. The gut usually tells me.
I ignore the gut sometimes, though. It get annoying. haha. :0)
I like your whole "Dave knows (with your nose) thing! Big ups.
i too enjoy the "dave knows" ...high5. hopefully i'll stop compromising...
ps. i love soup.
With me I guess I compromise because sometimes I don't think my goal is realistic. Usually I do compromise, and I know I shouldn't, but i still do it, sometimes I get a second chance from God and use the experience to my advantage, but other times I don't get a second chance, but I still use my experience to encourage others to not do the same. All we can do when we do compromise is still be optimistic, it happened so learn from it.
When it comes to choosing between the path and then going around the path, it seems logical to go through, but then we see "the lions, tigers and bears, oh my" and get off the course. What we tend to forget is that God has built a wall to protect us and he would never put more than we can handle.
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