Really?

Sometimes it’s hard to believe.  I’m not thinking of the solutions to difficult conundrums, I’m talking about basic, run of the mill, normal stuff.  Telling the truth is often just as easy, appropriate, and fitting as telling a tall tale – yet the tale is inevitably more appealing.  Being kind, with a gentle smile takes less energy and again usually leads one to a great feeling, yet one takes out frustration on the innocent messengers as if they were responsible for our emotions.  Even the principles and values we hold most true and precious – trust, compassion, and honesty – can take a backseat in moments of stress, tiredness, or anger. 
 
One wonders what it will take for the “truth” of the values we hold most precious to become an integral part of the fiber of our lives.  Are we stuck asking rhetorical questions?  It is as if we are in a divine comedy when “a voice calls to me from the Seir mountains in Edom, ‘Night watchman!  How long till daybreak?  How long will this night last?’
 
The night watchman calls back, ‘Morning's coming, but for now it's still night.  If you ask me again, I'll give the same answer.’”  (Isaiah 21.11, 12) 
 
How easily we, with me at the head of this line, seem to forget that compassion rules, honesty is the only policy, and non-violence is the one consistency of every action.  My actions say I don’t really believe these foundations of my life are really true.  The tale told is one of a god within dictating that my self is more important than community.  The saga goes on to explain (again by decisions and actions) how greed, aggressive power, and exploitation are desirable. 
 
There is a way out of this conundrum.  Your key and mine lies in accepting our “self” exactly as we are while aspiring to be more.  God accepts us just as we are, can we do anything less?  With self acceptance comes the opportunity to accept something more – God’s vision of our recreation.  There’s more, but this is a great first step.