Brave Enough To Be Bliss

childhood traumas. There are certainly reasons for all of his behavior, but just like mine, they aren’t excuses for treating other people poorly. It’s up to each of us to work through them and learn better ways of behaving .

People may want to judge me and say I allowed myself to be taken advantage of , but that isn’t correct. I chose to believe in someone who indicated he had a desire to improve his life. I wanted to help him in that effort with the investment of my time, energy, encouragement, money, living space, and friendship. However, when his disrespectful behavior arose, I simply withdrew the living space, and he chose never to contact me again. I wasn’t taken advantage of; he simply didn’t take advantage of the opportunity he was given to move his life forward in the positive direction he had said he wanted. Nathan ’s faith reminded me of the man Brandon Gregory wrote about in the May 14, 2024, COR GPS Insights (a link to the full devotional is under Resources at the end of the chapter) , “There’s a story of a man caught at his house during a flood. As the waters rose, someone came by in a boat and offered to take him to safety. ‘ No, ’ the man said, ‘ God will rescue me! ’ Later, the waters had risen even further and another boat came by. The man similarly replied, ‘ No! I have faith that God will rescue me! ’ The waters rose further and the man soon found himself on his roof. Another boat came by and its driver frantically motioned for the man to climb in and flee to safety. The man once again responded, ‘No! My God will rescue me, I’m sure of it!’ The waters rose further and the man was swept away and soon drowned. In Heaven, the man had a chance to talk to God. ‘ Why did you not rescue me? ’ the man angrily demanded. ‘ What do you mean? ’ God asked. ‘ I sent three boats! ’” I understand his childhood and family history enough to have an idea of the self-sabotaging messages in his brain that led him to miss an opportunity to improve his life. But those are things only he can resolve. I won’t offer my living space to anyone in that situation again, but I will continue to invest in people who need to be believed in and supported. Sometimes they are ready to step out of the current situation, thinking patterns and behaviors, and into a self-sustaining way of living they might not otherwise have been able to reach on their own. For whatever reasons, he wasn’t ready right then to chang e, but what if one or two or 10 years from now, that encouragement planted a seed that eventually helps him believe in himself and find his way out? That is certainly my hope. I never have to stop believing in the potential of another human being, but when I am disrespected, or when I know another human being has been disrespected and there is no responsibility taken or effort given to change that behavior, then that person just does n’t have any place in my life. Nathan believes in the power of prayer, so I hope one day, similar to Mother Teresa ’s quote below, he will come to believe that prayer isn’t going to change his situation, but rather that prayer will change him and then he can change things. “I used to pray that God would feed the hungry, or do this or that, but now I pray that he will guide me to do whatever I’m supposed to do, what I can do. I used to pray for answers, but now I’m praying for strength. I used to believe that prayer changes t hings, but now I know that prayer changes us and we change things.” Mother Teresa

Become! Become! Become! (johnroedel.com)

“Deep listening is the kind of listening that can help relieve the suffering of another person.” Thich Nhat Hanh

I have learned sometimes the person I have to listen to most intently is myself.

I woke up about 4 a.m. on November 25, 2023, with the following words I immediately typed into my phone. Even though I hadn’t been consciously thinking about the approaching date, apparently my subconscious mind was because after I typed this, I realized the following Monday, November 27, 2023, would have been our 30 th wedding anniversary if we had stayed married.

30 years ago, I married a man I wanted to be my best friend. I just didn’t know how to be one yet.

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