Out of ...

Out of…

Out of hope

            My motivation changed

 Out of desire

            I formulated a plan 

Out of love

            The justification came

Out of pain

            The words turned into action

Out of remorse

            The barriers were removed

Out of Justice

            Comes the Truth

Out of Truth

            Came Life

From the right and from the left the statement reads the same.  The actions are different, the tone is different, and the results are different. Read with a pleasant voice and a sweet tone the words are filled with empathy and purity. This produces the solid and foundational base of actions that are the tales of the giants of faith, the story of the hero. The dramatic change comes when they are read from the perspective of the drained.  Without hope yet demanded upon. Without love yet required to. Without remorse, there is no boundary to cross.  This is the nuance of the English language.

 Spoken in the proper tone, or listened to with the right expectation, we hear what we believe will heal and cast the remainder to the ash can of ignanimity.  Within the safe confines of the world we have designed and reinforced, stands the bulwark of action and justification to support it with blocks of motive.  The turmoil develops when the penetrating truth of the lie exposed, stands against the failure of the lie to deliver.  When the unsupportable extension overburdens the foundation of the believed lie, the structure collapses.  The failure is not if but when.  This is the time of hope restored.  The point of malleability is the desire of God.  To make the changes lasting, there has to be a departure from the former to the current and then to the future.  There can be no escape from the today.  It is not required to stay long, only that you stay long enough.  There is a difference.

The numbness of the pain, it always begins here, sets us on the path down.  There can be additional problems that come with, but that numbness is real.  When I was a youth and went to the dentist, I would get a shot to numb my mouth.  The problem was that I would then chew on my cheek, since it too was numb, and I would not feel anything but the rubbery resistance.  Of course, the problem was that the numbness would wear off and the cheek was now in pain due to the chewing.  The same is for the one numbed in a relationship by pain, loss or abandonment for instance, and then in that stupor comes the affair or drugs or any number of vices.  The reality of the pain from the initial event passes but the secondary events take a life of their own and become a pattern with consequences of their own.  Because we are weak and flawed, we will blame the initial event, but that long since has passed.  We don’t like to blame our own actions… seldom anyway. Mostly when confronted with no other option of escape.  Like a 2yr old with a toy they should not have, they will grip all the more as you try to extract it. We are the same.

That gets us to an interesting parenting technique; the better alternative.  The 2yr old will drop the toy the minute that a better option entices.  Finding that better option is the tricky part.  Finding the thing that satisfies the soul of the one that enjoys the addiction is a difficult thing, short of pain.  To entice the addictive personality with but one more addictive thing is not success.  To listen to their cries for acceptance is the issue, but the one in the midst of the firestorm also has numbing behaviors of their own, and the cries then get unheard.  It is like the water wheel of the old mill, each bucket on the wheel gives what it gets… and none are satisfied.

Who changes the program?  Who will stop the cycle, even for their own sanity?  How will change be manifest in the lives of those we connect with?  When Wilberforce began to push for an abolition of the trade of slaves there was much resistance, of course.  But what came first was the keen awareness in his own life that he could be as the traders themselves, and that is what broke the pattern.  Faced with the reality that he was flawed, he could then express to others that flawed-ness was a part of life that they too could confront.  30yrs went by until the thing was broken, but when it was done, the entirety of congress wept over it.  For an hour there was sobbing at the release of the bondage and horror of the thing throughout the Empire.  It had changed because one man had been changed.  Out of Justice, Comes the Truth. Out of Truth, Came Life.  From one, to one…

It is from you that the change will begin.  You can express the worth that you desire when out of that pain comes the cry of the soul that you are worthy of the change.  Out of Hope comes action.  Starting is the expression of that hope on display. Now is a good time to begin.