There is a common saying, “The standard you walk past is the standard you accept”
Very true indeed. Look at the activists in life’s history. For instance Malcolm X and Martin Luther King junior could not just ignore the inequality and oppression of one race over another for another day. The loathed at the smell of it. The more they saw it the more they felt compelled to do something about.
The same goes for Abraham Lincoln who fought hard to abolish slave trade. However, there are millions of people who walked past the same ills of society and did nothing about it. They probably complained about it at work with their colleagues. Then they would get home and grumbled about it with family and friends.
It is like the parable of the Good Samaritan, one out of three people dared to do something about a wounded man lying on the streets. That one man was a Samaritan who dared to stop for an injured Jew, after a priest and a religious rabbi had walked past. It is like a Serbian stopping to help an Albanian.
So you would be shocked how many millions of black American people were not happy about their lives that time and yet only a few were prepared to die and suffer for change. The pain of fighting for a better future is always as appetizing as living in the future itself for the radical activist.
Now let us come back to your situation, when it comes to your life – you do not have the masses helping you to live it out and pursue your dreams. So you cannot look to someone else to pursue the necessary adjustments that need to happen in your life. It is all on you partner!
How is the state of your health as you walk past it everyday, is it wounded, does it need attention? Are you happy with your weight?
How is your financial life, are you battling to pay for the basic necessities? Does just a mere holiday trigger a huge squeeze out of your budget?
How is your social life and relationships with family, friends, girlfriend or wife? Do you get the same complaints from most of them about certain aspects of your character?
How is your spiritual life? Are you even afraid to ask someone to give you feedback about your growth because you know what they are going to say? Have you been in the same place for 38 years like the invalid man at the pool of Bethesda?
If the mediocre standard you are experiencing right now rents space in your mind, if it bothers you then you must hit the “streets and protest” to yourself for change.
The first step to turning your life around is to be fed up with where you are. Enough with internalizing the problem issues and doing nothing about them.
Secondly you need to stop making excuses and taking the responsibility to the state your life is right now. If people lied to you how come you believed it? If people used you how come you let them do it?
Thirdly, forgive them and yourself – everyone involved. This is a key step because you will never leave the angry round about of despair unless you let the hurts go.
Then you need to meditate the future you and be convinced about how things need to be. Obviously do some research and even take your time to get input about digging yourself out of this man-made “Kimberley hole” of yours.
Lastly, Once you conceive this picture in the depth of your inner person you must begin the massive project of building your future. You need to get over the fear of people and what they will say. The fear of failure and what ifs and the even the fear of success too.
If you are walking past the standards in your life and doing nothing about them then you are simply accepting the way things are now and the way they will end up based on the path you are following everyday.
Be the change you want to see, your dream will not just come to you automatically regardless of how spiritual or self driven you are. Your prayers and the relationship you have with God are simply the springboard to which your faith is empowered to go and conquer the storms until you get to the other side. Life is more practical than it is painted to be by religion and psychology.
Notice that CONQUER is a doing word that is why Life is by design!
Life By Design! 