I sadly see a movement in our nation, even here in our beloved Port O’Connor, to compromise and become like everyone else. Individualism seems to have no credence – just get us to herd mentality! The message is one of “tolerance,” which means to most that we must agree with whatever another believes and never take a stand against other viewpoints. I believe it is time for us to stand strong and be the people we have been created to be – to live our lives in real freedom from the stresses of the “theys” who are always setting the standards! Get strong and stay strong!
Our strengths will stop others from trying to make us conform! I believe our Creator made us distinctively different from all others. There are those who would like for us to all be cut from the same “cookie cutter”! But, God has uniquely gifted each of us. He has unleashed a profound Divine gift in and through us. When we allow anyone to stop us and make us like someone else, we stop God’s plan for our life and our lives will be unfulfilled!
Our strengths will help us keep moving toward our mark! None other in all God’s creation has the same future as I have. The enemies of individualism will try to discourage us, disillusion us, distract us, and disappoint us. If possible, they will keep us from hitting our mark (as in bowling), so our lives will end up in the “gutters” of life. But, our inner strengths will keep us moving forward when opposition comes our way and it truly will come!
Our strengths will stop us from crumbling when persecutions come. God has appointed us, anointed us, chosen us, and declared to His angels His personal plan for our lives. Remember, we will not please everyone with the personal choices we make. Some will try with all their might to keep us from God’s mighty power operating in our lives. But, our inner strength will keep us moving toward our goals in spite of all those who say we “can not accomplish it”!
Our strengths will demoralize our opposition. It is much like running a race – the farther ahead we get ahead of our opposition, the less likely they will gather the inner strength to surge ahead to beat us! Keeping our confidence will destroy that enemies’ confidence and soon he will stop chasing us.
Our strengths will keep us from being seduced by the Delilah’s of life. Just as the Philistine lords paid Delilah money to set a trap for Samson, there are present day “Delilahs” who are trying to set up a bait to lure us, to seduce us, to lull us into a stupor, a slumber, a false sense of “rest”! They try to break us, crush us, and stop us from our mission. Our strength will not allow us to lie down, and take a nap on her lap because we now know that she is trying to kill us to stop our mission from being successful.
Our strengths will enable us to give birth to our visions. All mothers, expecting a child, require the strength to carry that child full-term. It will take additional strength for the baby to be perfectly formed, complete and whole. If the mother is not healthy, the birth can be premature, aborted, or the baby can be “still born”. A dead baby brings years of sorrow, a spirit of death into the marriage, disappointments, and often destroys the hope that every union requires. It strips the countenance of expectations, ecstasy, and enthusiasm. When the birthing pains get the hardest, extra strength will be required to go forward and birth that vision. But, our God has provided the extra strength required to see the baby come forward and new life to be created!
Our strengths are our personal decision to accomplish worthy goals for our lives. No one can keep our attention and focus at this time and at this season in our lives – no one except us! We must unclutter our lives, our days, our hours, our minutes, and even our seconds. We must unclutter the relationships entangling our emotions and our thoughts that will distract us from our goals. We must ruthlessly swipe away the webs that the small spiders have weaved around our minds. God is ready to do something different in our lives, but we must use our personal strengths to see it accomplished!
There is a spirit of complacency in our world and in our community. Complacency is not about being uncaring or disinterested – it is simply a spirit of contentedness that has gone awry. It is a satisfaction that lacks a clear sense of ongoing purpose, urgent priority, and a motivating passion for more of the good that we are all be be seeking. Anything less than our wholehearted desire to see our community be and remain the kind of place we are proud to call home will help deteriorate us from the inside. We have work to do and it is far from done!
The analogy is of a natural body that has an infection. When we have a fever, we feel achy, listless, and tired, with a lack of energy – we just do not feel well! At first, we are not sick enough to be in bed or go to the doctor, and yet not well enough to be busy as normal. I see this same snapshot in our community. A ferer is the bod’s warning signal, a sign that all is not well and the body is being affected by something that should not be there – an infection that would lessen its effectiveness and steal its energy, slowly robbing the body of health and vitality – its strength.
I know that there are people in our town who are truly sick, whether by disease or addiction, but if we as a community do not join forces and try to see things better, we will all continue to feel the impact of people who can not or are not willing to be productive citizens
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Fight complacency be being always Port O’Connor Strong!
