Imagine having to reach a place in life when you have
no other go but to have your skin peeled off! Having a small bruise is bad
enough and terrible to bear… but having the skin from all over your body
peeled? Absolutely unbearable! Well, you may wonder what I am trying to get at.
It is simple, if you knew that something you are choosing today would have to
peeled off someday in such a painful fashion, would you allow that something to
get attached to you in the first place?
Ours is a generation that easily adapts to new things
without even considering what it is we are embracing and making an irreversible
part of our lives. I would say irreversible because even if we do get through the
consequences of our choices, we are never the same as what we were before we
made that choice.
Every choice makes a statement about who we are and
what we think of ourselves and how much we care about our future… in this world
and the eternal too. Even if the whole world decides to go the wrong way, if we
are seriously considering the choices we are making for ourselves and we realize
it, we would refrain from following them in doing the wrong thing. Doing so would
mean that we care for ourselves truly.
When we make a commitment to love ourselves, we need
to assess how we treat ourselves and the things that concern our lives, our
minds and our future. Moreover we also need to assess the relationships that are
close to our hearts and whether they nourish us positively or bleed us to death
in spirit and otherwise. When we learn about how toxic and dangerous people can
be it is better we act on such information speedily and do what needs to be
done to save ourselves from greater harm. Pretending that nothing is wrong could
mean that we hate ourselves and don’t care to deal with something that is
harmful for us.
Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Here we are first called to love ourselves, to care about ourselves (not in the
selfish way which is at the cost of others). And then we are called to love
others the way we love ourselves. So if you say you really love yourself, what
are you doing about it? What are the choices you are making that shows that you
do love yourself?
Would you choose death, disease, stagnation,
addiction, emotional problems and dependency on trivial things? Would you
choose to live in a way that could end your life in just a few years? Would you
choose a relationship that makes a puppet out of you and kills the very spirit
of who you are as a person? Would you embrace a habit, an attitude that would
lead to your destruction or downfall? Would you take life as it comes and not
do something to make it more meaningful and better?
Take a look at where you are standing… is it shaky
ground? Is it firm grounded based on values, principles that will cover you
through every kind of situation? If you learn today that you are not standing
on firm ground… do something about it! Search for the life that will give you
the lasting happiness, peace, satisfaction and success that won’t kill you.
Search for the ways that take you to a place where you can live without
regrets. Search for the people who will build you up, care for you and not be
the reason for you to break and fall apart. Don’t feel paralyzed at this
knowledge… get up, dust yourself and move on.
True, during times of change we may feel very alone…
but it is worth the pain. Burn the candle for yourself, encourage yourself
knowing that you are doing the right thing… and keep going one step at a time. Eventually
you will see you have made progress. Eventually you will see other beacons of
light calling out to you, other voices saying, “Keep going, we are beside you…
you are not alone.” It will be a while… but don’t look back. Keep walking,
bearing the weight of your burdens. These burdens are not ordinary burdens,
they are meant to make your shoulders strong.
Someday when our lives are over, when we cross that
shore that is between life and death, we will be able to look back without
regret. We will see a life that was lived well because we stopped to think
about what we were doing. Those unbearable experiences of pain we went through
when we had to peel off the negative habits, thinking, relationships and
destructive ways in us was worth it.
So the question is ‘Do you really love yourself?’ If
you do, choose the things that become your skin, your second nature… and a part
of you with great care.
