We've Got the Power

A few weeks ago, I posted on Facebook an anonymous quote that received a strong response.  Here’s the quote: 

“Everything you do is based on the choices you make.  It's not your parents, your past relationships, your job, the economy, the weather, an argument, or your age that is to blame.  You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make, period.”

It’s easy to understand why the quote would receive a strong response.  Wrapped up in these three sentences are powerful ideas:  choice, responsibility, blame, decision, freedom, suffering.  (Have I missed any ideas that you noticed?)

As we live and grow, we are all faced with situations and circumstances that cause us to suffer.  The suffering could be as serious as not having our basic needs met (not enough food, water, shelter, clothing, safety), to as frivolous as not receiving the gift we wanted for our birthday.  However serious or frivolous the circumstances are that cause us to suffer, we all suffer at some point as we live and breathe and walk the earth.

Of course, none of us likes to suffer, so we try to find the source of our suffering and do something about it.  One of the ways we do something about suffering is to blame someone or something for it. 

When we blame someone or something for it, we don’t have to take responsibility for our behavior and attitude when faced with suffering.  Recently, my daughter has been listening to the sound track of West Side Story.  The lyrics to the song, “Officer Krupke,” are a perfect example of what I’m describing:

“Dear kindly Sergeant Krupke,

You gotta understand,

It's just our bringin' up-ke

That gets us out of hand.

Our mothers all are junkies,

Our fathers all are drunks.

Golly Moses, natcherly we're punks!

Gee, Officer Krupke, we're very upset;

We never had the love that ev'ry child oughta get.

We ain't no delinquents,

We're misunderstood.

Deep down inside us there is good!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7TT4jnnWys

Obviously, the boys are right:  They “never had the love that ev’ry child oughta get.”  They certainly aren’t responsible for being born into a family that couldn’t care for them well and into an environment that didn’t support a healthy upbringing.  I don’t think anyone would argue that they’ve gotten a good deal in life so far.  Even so, that doesn’t mean they have to give in to the corruption they see around them.  As a matter of fact, their friend, Tony, is hard at work to change his life for the better.  He’s decided he’s had enough of gang life and he’s working at a local store and thinking about his future. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu7sRdRrm_w

Tony has realized something important:  He is in charge of how he responds to what he’s been given.  He may not have control over very much, but he has control over himself:  his choices, his decisions, how he reacts, what he hopes for, and so on.  Sadly, for Tony, he decides to do one last thing for his old gang, and that is his undoing.  West Side Story is, after all, a tragedy.

Even though there are people, situations, and circumstances that are the cause of our suffering, we, ultimately, have control over how we respond to those people, situations, and circumstances.  The quote above that I posted on my Facebook page doesn’t say that everything that happens to us is the result of the choices we make.  Instead, it says everything we do is the result of the choices we make.  If we are blaming something outside of us, we will continue to suffer because, most of the time, we can’t change people and we can’t change circumstances.  The only thing we can change is ourselves.  We can be like Tony and be outwardly proactive (he left the gang and got a job), or we can be inwardly proactive (for example, we can pray for the situation and ourselves, change our attitude within a situation or toward a person, and so on). 

If anyone suffered, Jesus suffered.  And yet, while dying on the cross, at the moment of his greatest suffering and humiliation, he retained his integrity as the beloved Son of God and forgave his enemies, even as they mocked him.  Although Jesus could be killed, he could not be corrupted.  He would not return evil for evil.  Thus, sin and evil were revealed to have no ultimate power to corrupt God and God’s creation.

We are God’s creation, and the suffering we experience while we walk the earth does not have the ultimate power to corrupt us.  We can retain our integrity as the beloved children of God even in the midst of suffering.  When we do so, the suffering becomes redemptive and we are transformed.  When we are transformed, the situation or circumstances often transform.  We may only have power over ourselves, but when we stand forth as beloved children of God, that’s a lot of power!