PARADOXICAL

(Author unknown)

(I have received this material from a friend. What it says is disturbing. It has a great capacity to offend. Read at your own risk.)

1. There is freedom in littleness, slavery in greatness. When you are little, you strive and depend harder on God. When you are great, you depend on yourself.

2. There is freedom in humility, slavery in pride and honor. When you are humble, you accept yourself, your experiences, and God. When you have pride and honor, you tend to reject and deny negative experiences, always defending yourself. Along with these comes rationalizing and blindness since you look at experiences your way against God's way.

3. There is freedom in suffering and sacrifice, slavery in comfort. When we sacrifice what we want or are beset with sufferings, we become selfless. When we have comfort, we tend to hold on to it, sometimes fearful of losing it that we eventually become selfish and self-centered.

4. There is freedom in rejection, slavery in worldly acceptance. When you are rejected, you turn to God. When you are accepted, you turn to man.

5. There is freedom in failure, slavery in success. When you fall, you try again until you succeed. Your spirit is enkindled in the process. When you are successful, you give up trying even before you begin, so that you can rule out the possibility of falling.

6. There is freedom in weakness, slavery in power and might. When you are weak, you call on God and patiently wait and listen for His response. When you are powerful and mighty, you listen and hear only yourself.

7. There is freedom in innocence, slavery in knowledge. When you are innocent, there is a lot of room for the Spirit of God to work in you. Purity can be nurtured. When you are knowledgeable, you depend on your acquired learnings and decide from time to time, according to need, the acceptance or rejection of God's Spirit. Your thoughts, speech, and actions are always self-motivated.

8. There is freedom in poverty, slavery in richness. When you are poor, you have nothing to lose, you are not afraid to lose even your life. When are rich, you hold on to your wealth. If you fear losing your material possessions, what more your life?

9. There is freedom in earthly death, slavery in earthly life. When you are not afraid to die, it is because you believe, and long to cross the unknown yet inevitable road that will bring you back to God. When you are too absorbed and filled with your earthly life, you take for granted the veracity of death. Thus, you block the only path that can take you back to God.

10. There is freedom in God, slavery in the world. When you choose to follow and obey God, you are able to experience His commitment to love and shower you with the grace to be able to love. When you choose the world, it has no commitment to you. Therefore, you wander aimlessly and remain lost in the dark.

"Freedom is what we have -- Christ has set us free! Stand then as free people, and do not allow yourselves to become slaves again." - Galatians 5:1

posted by R.O.  # 10:08 PM