Saturday, 5/9/09, Day 178, Daniel 1:1-21 When have you taken a difficult or unpopular stand as a matter of integrity?

WOW I haven't done a post in such a loooooong time.....i hope people still read this blog =P

This passage was discussed in the last mtb IBS. Honestly, I never gave much thought to this question or this passage in general. When I looked at the question, I tried to think of an example. It felt like I had stand up for something unpopular, but I couldn't think of any particular example. It made me question on whether or not I really do stand up for what I believe in . Or maybe it's because that i don't do enough to exemplify my different opinions that i wasn't able to have a really distinct experience come to mind. This question to me was straight forward answered with either"yes or no and if yes, when or where"? I guess this mtb ibs made me realize that there is more...that there is always more. life is not just black and white...it is too complex for that

There was a question on whether or not I compromise my faith. One of my scenarios that I presented to my group was "sneaking into the movies.". Okay.....sneaking in to movies looks like a "small" thing to do; this action doesn't really earn a person the title of being a "bad person". The reason people practice this action is because it so easy to do and countless of people do it. Some of the people in my group would skip out on the movie sneaking, which is really admirable to hear. Others said that it depended on the movie. This really got me thinking.

hmmm....depending on the movie........ ok we can all agree that murder and sneaking into movies are both against the law. I realized something. When this movie sneaking concept was being discussed, we argued a lot on the justifications we came up with. Because this concept seems small and that it won't affect much of anything, discussing about the reasons we should do it was so easy to do. On the other hand, killing a person has even lesser justifications. Why is that? ok maybe it is the fact that the severity of the consequences is unequal. Murder outweighs sneaking into the movies by a milestone. Although it doesn't seem like the sneaking in thing doesn't affect much, it does affect indeed. It may affect the workers in the movie theaters that could get fired if caught allowing movie watchers to sneak in. Also if we do choose to do this action, others will follow. Generations will follow and it will become a trend that will not stop unless someone says otherwise.It just takes that one person to start a chain. What kind of example are we showing to the children in the future? What message are we trying to say with our actions? It is okay to break the law only if is easy to get away with and others are following along? I think not...


Jaywalking was also a scenario that came up. Just like sneaking into movies, Jaywalking is also very easy to do. It doesn't even feel like you are breaking the law. There is no big guilty feeling that clouds over you. Although I too jaywalk at times, I do know that it is against the law. There are a lot of reasons I can come up with just to explain this action.....to explain why it is not a big deal at all. But then again, I need to think of why this law came to be in the first place. It was made to protect me. It goes the same for God. He made rules for us too. He made these guidelines for our benefits, not His. He is not the one that could possibly get hit by a car, it is us. ALthough we may have a different perspective in the beginning, I think in the long run God's care and love will show through these rules thus giving us a new perspective....His perspective.

Anyways, I think we justify out of our own comfort. How much more comfortable we will be if we did not argue with our friends about the movie sneaking or being able to watch two movies at the price of one. It is like we like to take the short cut, the easy route. Life is hard and we all know that. We take these easy routes to make life easier, but is that what God wants from us? To manipulate the way He made this world for our own beneficial needs? Compromising only fool ourselves, it can never fool God. We come up with justifications to ease our own minds, but it doesn't ease God's mind.

One last comment XD......I am really happy with some of the high schoolers in the fellowship. Their maturity and faith is such a sight to see. During that IBS, i heard stories about taking unpopular stands. These are teenagers that i am talking about. Teenagers are easy victims to peer pressure, it is just not easy to say no at times. God is definitely working with people's hearts. He is definitely doing something :D