This article was published in the Marion Star, Wednesday November 5th, 2008
The Devil Made Me Do It…
I have a confession to make. I don’t like to admit it, but I think that the truth must be known. Two weeks ago - I ate sugar. I know. Take a second to drink that in for a second. Ready? OK let’s move on.
To those who are parishioners at St. Mary, you might well understand why I feel I need to come clean. My first weekend in Marion, I publicly declared two things to the people of my parish, the first is that Thursday’s are my day off, and the second is that I never eat sugar. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
See it is all sorts of innocent… I have a Mediterranean friend in Columbus who owns one of the best Greek restaurants in town (I think). Whenever I want to impress friends or family I take them there. I am friends with the owner, and at times I stop by just to say hello to her and partake in some gyros and conversation (can those Greeks talk!)
Invariably when I go, my friend tries to get me to eat some cheesecake, pie, chocolate cake. Usually, I am resilient and and give a hearty “no, thank you,” but the last time I was in, she placed the pastry in front of me, put a fork in my hand, and told me to eat. What choice did I have? What could have I possibly done?
So I ate. Folks, let me tell you, there is nothing like free, homemade, and fresh cheesecake covered in strawberries. I can still taste it. Can you?
I would love to blame my friend for having put the temptation in front of me. I would love to say that it is her fault that I ate the cake. I wish that I could point the finger at her and say that I had no choice in the matter, but all of that would be false. Really, she was just being a good friend, a good Greek, and she didn’t know anything about my “vow of sugarlessness.”
I made the choice to eat the cake. There was no gun pointed to my head. I took that fatal first bite myself and succumbed to temptation. (The rest was a blur after that first bite, by the way! I think I ate the plate too…)
It is a pretty common sentiment in our culture to point the finger and blame everyone else for what we choose to do. It is easy to point the finger when I fail to choose the good- a lot of us, including myself, have done it ever since we were little kids.
In the end, each of us is responsible for ourselves. When we do something, unless there is actual violent force involved, we choose to do it. If someone makes us feel guilty about something, it is because we allowed them to make us feel guilty. If someone manipulates or tempts us, it is us who succumbs to the temptation.
“We are the guardians at the doorway of our own minds.”
Likewise, it isn’t possible for us to dictate how someone else should act, nor should we try to manipulate them into acting in a way that we would want them too, or even try to “fix” them. Good or bad, the only person whose actions we can determine are our own. It is our responsibility to keep our own “side of the street” clean, and no one else’s. Additionally, we cannot clean someone else’s side of the street, although it is possible to help someone who is in need when they accept our help.
Here is the good news- no matter where we might be at this point, because of the decisions we have made and the circumstances we have been put into, it is always possible to re-claim our freedom. Freedom from addiction, freedom from the manipulations of other people, freedom to make decisions that are for our good, and the good of those around us, even if, at times, they are tough.
To accomplish this we may need to make the decision to reach out for some help to reclaim our freedom.
Doing the right thing is tough- we fear being rejected, of failing, or even pain, but in the end when we freely choose the highest good for ourselves and for those around us, more good will ultimately come from it. Everything is Possible!
