“You can’t control what happens to you, but you can control how you respond to it.”
Are you sure?
Though I’ve even said this myself, I’m recently wondering how true it is. What if our responses are no more within our control than the circumstances themselves?
Imagine a person born into wealth and fame with natural good looks and intelligence having the audacity to preach to people that they can have all the same by just working hard at it. We would guffaw at someone trying to present such good fortune as personal merit.
But what if our ability to respond well to adversity and offense is largely the result of a variety of things beyond our control, just like circumstances? Aren’t those of us who then promote this as a skill essentially bragging about beauty we didn’t really earn?
After all, telling a miserable person that his misery is his fault is quite cruel if your ability to choose happiness was basically an unearned gift from God.
2 comments:
The problem, on the other hand, is that we are commanded to respond well. "Love your enemy." "Count it all joy when you encounter various trials." You know, tough stuff in the face of adversity. If it is true that our responses our only the result of things outside our control, then it is pointless to make such commands.
So ... perhaps it is a false dichotomy. Perhaps you can control how you respond to difficult circumstances ... "for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to do His good pleasure."
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