Hey again, I read the recent posts and have a few ideas in mind. Firstly I'd have to say that even though you were brought up in that situation, YOU have the choice to stop its continuing influence on your life. Fully realize that it IS ok to want some things for yourself and stop beating yourself up over it, you said yourself that you know that you were initially taught wrongly. And also as you had said, it is somewhat noticeable that you have become somewhat detached from reality, but that also is a temporary predicament.
Psalm 23 says, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." Now no part of that states anything to make one think that God will hand you everything and you basically have to do nothing to receive it. He is simply saying that He will be there to strengthen you in times of trouble, that even a real situation of danger we should not be truly fearful for He is with us (either as physical protection of spiritual salvation), and that you will receive that gift of salvation in the house of the Lord no matter what your enemies plot. There is actually a perfectly suited analogy concerning a man who's cart went off the road and crashed into a ditch, leaving him trapped beneath the cart. When a first man passed he called out to the driver, "Do you need some help down there". In response, being a Christian and also under the same misunderstanding, he replied that he needed no help and that God would come to help him out of the ditch soon. Well that exact situation repeated 3 times, 3 people asked him if he needed help. Well, the man ended up dieing in the ditch and when he reached heaven he asked why He didn't try to pull him from the ditch. God responds, "I did try, three times actually, you just didn't take the chances". This should, I hope, address both the misunderstanding with Psalm 23 and how to cope with hardships in your life. Putting your faith in God does help but it by no means excludes you from hardship or the necessity of action.
Also science and Christianity most certainly do need to be seen in more balance by most people because they are one in the same. Steven Hawking and many other very renown thinkers support a very interesting theory. These scientist state that this world, our environment, the earth itself, the amount of cosmic radiation that bombards the earth and the amount filtered by the outer atmosphere, even the composition of the air we breath to name only a very few...ALL of it has to be EXACTLY as it is now or all life would cease to exist. Now, of all the facts of physics and nature that clearly do point toward intelligent, purposeful creation....that has got to be one of the most obvious. That idea, the theory, is even coming from people who at some points would argue on the side of the fictional story of evolution (which I might add that many scientists are now coming closer to the realization that the universe is not random and evolved out of happenstance). So that is a little tiny bit of the science that you might not readily come across, and there is sooo much more.
What you have dealt with is not easy by a mile...and we as individuals cannot choose what happens or is forced upon us, but we CAN control how we respond and continue after the fact. There is only one way to get past this and it is not found in finding a reason why every advise is wrong. If you really really want to find the answers then really look, think, and then just focus on what needs done to move on...move forward...forget about
what was and aim at what can and will be. I hope that I have helped a little and I hope you feel better FarbeyondDriven.
Christian
Post Edited (-Misunderstood-) : 6/25/2010 5:26:27 AM (GMT-6)