Morning Devotional
December  8, 2005
"Never Helpless"         
    by Don Emmitte

So why do you condemn another Christian? Why do you look down on another Christian? Remember, each of us will stand personally before the judgment seat of God. For the Scriptures say, " `As surely as I live,' says the Lord, `every knee will bow to me and every tongue will confess allegiance to God.' " Yes, each of us will have to give a personal account to God. So don't condemn each other anymore. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not put an obstacle in another Christian's path. (Romans 14:10-13 NLT).

 

Chuck Colson reports in Breakpoint how Gregg Easterbrook in his book, The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse, says that there is as much as a "ten-fold increase in unipolar depression in industrial nations [in] the postwar era." After giving one or two other reasons for this increase Colson says, "Another mistaken idea contributing to depression is the 'postwar teaching of victimology and helplessness.' 'Intellectuals, politicians, tort lawyers, and the media' have worked to identify and designate new classes of victims. As Martin Seligman [of the University of Pennsylvania] notes, more and more Americans identify themselves as victims of one sort or another. The result is a sense of helplessness. Americans, especially the young, claim to have less and less control over their lives at the same time that they enjoy unprecedented personal freedom." 1

 

You may have remembered me writing in previous devotionals that one of the biggest causes I have seen for failure in relationships is this victim mentality. At least 90 percent of failed relationships I have seen primarily blame their partner for their unresolved conflicts while failing to admit that they shared equal responsibility (even if it was just being too passive and/or codependent). Furthermore, almost none even consider what flaw it was in them that caused them to be attracted to their partner in the first place. The reality is we are as sick as the people we are attracted to [or as healthy]. Sadly, as long as people play this blame-game, they will never recover. Even worse, they will continue to repeat their past mistakes. It's either resolution or repetition.

 

Of course I am not saying that blame or guilt should be accepted. The last thing anyone in the midst of a difficult experience needs is more of that! However, I am saying that the cycle can be stopped and the path changed. A very famous writer said:

 

"Up to a point a man's life is shaped by environment, heredity, and movements and changes in the world about him. Then there comes a time when it lies within his grasp to shape the clay of his life into the sort of thing he wishes to be. Only the weak blame parents, their race, their times, lack of good fortune, or the quirks of fate. Everyone has it within his power to say, 'This I am today; that I will be tomorrow.'" 2

 

Is it time for you to start living in today? Is it time for you to affect a change in your actions? Give it a try! You do have the power of change in the presence of Christ within you.

 

1.        Breakpoint, August 26, 2004 www.pfm.org

2.        Louis L'Amour.