All of us have habits. Most of us have a few which are hard to kick. Some of us are would like to stop. Few of us really do.
Our habits range from smoking and drinking, to anger, to being overtly competitive to being a little too shy. All of us know we perhaps should not be doing a few things that we do. a tiny percentage really take any action.
There is a line of thought doing the rounds. Some of us are stronger willed than some others. So its easy for some. There is also another line of thought that we sometimes supposedly do not have control over our actions. ‘You just wouldn’t understand.’ They say. ‘You have never gone through it the way I have.’
While it is agreeable to think so about certain experiences, it is completely wrong to tell yourself that and others, so that you don’t have to take any action.
A hypothetical question for believers and non-believers alike.
When you ask, ‘Oh God! Give me the strength and courage!’ what do you think he does?
Does He think to himself, ‘finally this fellow asked me for it! I have been waiting all my life to give it to him.’ So here you are. Take some.
Or does he simply give you the opportunity to show some strength and courage. (Since he gave you what you asked for when he made you in the first place). For the non-believers, perhaps when you look for it, you suddenly realize and see an opportunity to show courage and strength, something you did not recognize till now.
What does God do when you ask him to make you kinder?
Does he make you kind, or give you the opportunity to be kind?
Or on a funnier note, one that might get things into perspective on a daily basis, when you say, “Damn he got a six pack, I wish I had them.”
Do you really mean that by exercise that you will obtain abdominal muscles, muscles that you never had? or does it simply mean that you always had them. It is simply now that you recognize that and with a little effort, it will just help them get further developed and come to the forefront.
We often believe that there are people amongst us who have more strength, be it mental or physical. We are in awe of some people who seem to be much more talented, or intelligent or even some people who are simply more courageous or smarter. But in thinking so, we simply diminish or rather hide behind our own fear of failure where in reality there is none.
As humans we are all born pretty much the same, and yet we are different enough to be individualistic. Sure some traits may differ, but largely we have the freedom to grow and develop in different ways depending on where we are from and how we have been brought up by this world.
We are the sum of our experiences.
In many ways this is a gift, also in many ways we unconsciously turn into our a curse. Gift, because we have so much possibility, each one of us grows differently. And a curse, because, in growing to different experiences in life, there are times where we forget that we are all born the same with the same possibilities inside of us. We all have the same mental capabilities, albeit some may find it a little easier than others but none the less there is no such thing as something that each one of us cannot accomplish or be.
Pete Sampras was not born the Pete Sampras we know. We almost never acknowledge the immense hard work and dedication behind the scene.
Courage for instance is not something that some of us have and some of us don’t, but courage is simply a choice we make in the face of adversity.
And that choice is more often than not, based on our experiences in life upto that point. There is no right or wrong here. Only choices made, directions chosen, consequences lived.
But the beauty of it all is, that no matter what the life has been, what experiences have taught, we will always have that choice. Its upto each one of us to simply exercise it.
Each one of us have the gift of the abdominal muscle. Its really upto us to decide whether we really want to have that six pack or not, how badly we want it and what we are willing to do, how far we are willing to go, how much conviction we have and how persistent we are.
The truth about life pretty much comes down that same question that started this passage,
When you really need to be mentally strong, when you ask God to give you the strength, what do he do?
Does he give you the strength, or does he deliver you an opportunity to display that strength He already knows you have?
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