Walking The Line

I am sitting in one of the quaint little cafes here in Rockland, Maine. I'm waiting for my breakfast and thinking about change and what it means to change. I again am reflecting on the mindset of people who have no desire to be anything or anyone other than who they are. In my opinion, there is a fine line that few people actually walk. This is the fine line between loving ourselves for who we are and recognizing the need for change. Finding ourselves set upon one side of this line or the other can be damning in a sense. If we love who we are too much and see no reason to improve, we risk becoming complacent in our circumstances and therefore become stagnant. On the other hand, if we focus solely on the need to change or the many improvements we feel we ought to make, we then run the danger of despising ourselves, having low self-worth and low self-esteem. Personally, I have fallen on both sides of this line. I have found myself thinking: I'm doing pretty well. I go to church, I pay tithing, I pay fast offerings, I strive to be honest, I serve in church, I do my best to be a positive influence on those people around me. I think I'm doing alright. At those times, I stopped progressing as a person. Although from the outside, I'm sure I looked as though I was doing very well, on the inside I was stationary, without any sign of growth. There have also been times when I was on the other side of the line. The depths of despair really is the only way to describe what it is like to be on the other side of the line. When you are not able see the good in yourself through all the "bad". It has been said that we often can be our own worst critic. If we are not careful, we critic ourselves took harshly. This had an adverse effect which leads to depression and doubt in ourselves, rather than to the motivation we are searching for to obtain the real and valuable change we are seeking. All too easily we can lose hope in the ability to change if we look at everything we may want to change about ourselves. This is why I feel that walking the straight and narrow line is so crucial for our growth and improvement as individuals. If we veer too far to one side or the other, we miss the mark of who we are meant to become. As I said before, I think too many of us are firmly set on one side of this line or the other, when in fact, we must walk this straight and narrow path to achieve the growth we need to become who God wants us to become.

One example of this could be the habit of smoking. I don’t think there is anyone out there that argues that smoking is a good thing. However, pretty much everyone who smokes has chosen to find themselves on one of the two sides of this line. They may have decided that they are a smoker and that is that. They may have decided that they are ok with it and this addiction is just part of who they are. They might have found a way to love themselves and their habits. Or, perhaps they have tried and tried to quit smoking. They may know it’s bad, and they may want to quit, but they have tried and failed too many times. They have lost hope, and they see themselves as “broken toys” that cannot be fixed. They are beyond the ability to change. They sometimes feel so lowly of themselves that they allow this negative self-image to affect other aspects of their lives. While a desire to quit smoking is the first step in actually quitting, taking this negative viewpoint to the extreme will not help, but only make failing that much worse. Thus, people who want to quit smoking, or bring about any meaningful change in general, need to walk this line. People must love themselves for all the good they are and their divine parentage and origins, while also seeing the need for and benefits of changing, of turning away from the bad outwardly influences, or bad inner mannerisms we have developed over time.

I am grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I was speaking with a friend the other day who shared with me that he was a Christian. We had a good discussion of some basic and core beliefs that all Christians shared commonly. We ultimately agreed that Christianity at its core means to accept that any person can change for the better through Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian of any denomination, you must have this firm belief at your core. There is the capability to change by will-power, and for those people who can “do it on their own”, I tip my hat to them. I know that for the rest of us, the majority of us, real change can and only will take place once the desire has been built on the foundation that we love our Savior and want to change and become better for him. This is meaningful and real change. I am grateful for second, third, fourth, and hundredth chances to change which come from the Grace of Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice. When it comes to walking that line, my savior is the one who keeps me from falling on either side and helps me to slowly, but steadily, become the man I hope to one day become.

Those are just some of the thoughts I’ve been having as of late….And breakfast was delicious, in case you were wondering.