
Hello everyone! I wanted to take something I said over the weekend on social media and expound on it today. I hope you will see my heart and know that I want nothing more than for people to be free, to love and help one another.
I will start today with a passage from 1 Corinthian Chapter 6, verse 12. The apostle Paul is speaking here: “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything."
In our society, we can say or do anything we pretty much want but does that automatically mean we should or that it will be helpful? No. Many things are hurtful but you can sure do them and you end up helping no one let alone yourself. You can do drugs if you want to escape your reality or to feel less pain but it’s not helpful. When the high is over, you will still be in pain and your circumstance will still exist. You can drink yourself into oblivion if you want to; it can take some of your pain away for a while but it the end, you will be right back where you started. In the case of drugs and drinking, these usually master you, not the other way around so therefore you become a slave.
You can steal or murder someone but the end result is usually jail, isolation, loneliness, the list goes on. Your need to steal, murder or whatever the crime happens to be makes you again, a slave. We can say what we want to but there will be consequences and repercussions that could span our lives – broken relationships, ended careers, distant children, the list goes on here too. You, again, become a slave to your words.
Our president is quite adept at this very thing, having the right to say anything and therefore saying it regardless of the damage it may cause him or others. He is in essence a slave to his words. He says many things that he has the ability to say simply because he can speak. Whether he should actually say them is up for debate. His criticisms of Teresa May, PM of England, last week are a perfect example of this problem. He said what he felt like saying but he did all kinds of damage in the process both to himself and to her, not to mention he offended an entire nation of allies, a friendly nation. This may have been “his right” but was it necessary? Was it helpful? Did it build anyone up? The answer to all three of these questions is no, no and no. My hope and prayer for him is that someone he trusts will come along and ask him these hard questions before he does irreparable damage to himself, his family, to this nation and our government. Yes he has the right to his opinion but that does not give him the right to hurt other people with his opinion.
He could learn a lot from the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians. We all could. How many of us have done the same to others? How many of us have done or said what we wanted to do because we could yet it harmed us or someone else? I know I have! The only thing I proved to myself is that I had the right to do something. I did not have the right to hurt someone else, yet I did. I did not prove I was free, I proved I was foolish and self-serving. I proved I was hurtful and mean. This is a fake version of freedom ladies and gentlemen. In the end, you will be a slave to something whether it be your actions, your words or someone else. Is this making sense? Paul was saying that just because you can do something does not make it right, good or freeing. He was saying yes you can do anything but that does not mean it will be good for you or someone else.
He spoke of not being mastered by anything because he was referring to this fake version of freedom – this idea that we have the right to do anything we want and there not be any repercussions or effects on us or anyone else. When we think that way, we will become a slave to whatever we think we have “the right” to do. I am here to tell you and I believe he would agree, we don’t have “the right” to hurt other people. I don’t care how free of a society we live in, we don’t have a right to just do or say what we want and hurt others who did not have a say in our choice.
Do you see the heart of what I am saying today? I want all of us to think before we say and do, and not just say and do because we can. I want our president to hopefully one day do the same with his words. This was the heart of the apostle Paul as well. I have often wondered what he would say about America and our culture if he were alive today. I want to encourage all of your to read his words for yourself and let them speak to you. Think before you do. Think before you say. Is this helpful? Will this build someone up or tear them down? Do I need to do that or say that right now? What is my motive? If we will answer these questions before we say or act on anything, the world will be a much kinder, friendlier and loving place for everyone. Love,
Elizabeth