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Topic: Betrayal (02/16/04)
TITLE: Betraying Opportunities By Sarah Balk Bond 02/19/04 |
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“ Oh, please, don’t even pull that ‘I am so hurt’ look. I’m not doing anything wrong-just because I’m married to you doesn’t mean you own me!” She said, “ I never.. “ You know what?” he said cutting her off, “ I’m not going to discuss it anymore. I’m tired of feeling like since you are what you are, I have to be like you. I’m not going to do it anymore. I have the freedom to decide who I am going to be. And you’re just going to have to put up with it.”
“What do you mean, pregnant?” Jazmine asked. “ How could you do this to me, after all I told you, all you said you believed?!” Jazmine was approaching hysterical, but she couldn’t stop. The thoughts of what was everyone going to think, and what will the church say, kept assaulting her mind. Finally she slung out, “ And to think, after all of that, my daughter, the preacher’s daughter, is a whore !” Her daughter, Rebekah ,left the room, burning with shame and something she couldn’t quite name.
Ever been here? Ever visited this place? I think in some respect or the other, all of us have. The boy whose dad never participates; the mother, who no matter how hard she tries, her children fight her at every turn. The man who loves a woman who will not love him back; she never found what love really was for herself, how can she give it to another?
But, all of us have visited life as the betrayer. Don’t think so? Did you ever ask God to hold on so you could pursue something more along the lines of who you are? How long did God wait and chase your heart before you finally gave Him everything? It is really easy to identify with the seeming victims in the stories above. We automatically want to identify with the victim. I mean, when you looked at the faithless husband, did you say, ‘Oh that sound s like something I’d do?’ When you saw the mother blame her daughter, did you think that’s how you would have handled it?. Or maybe you identified with the daughter hurting herself and yet being blamed for everyone else feeling shame.
But, we don’t read the rest of the story. And in life, we seldom do see the whole story.
The characters above are people I see everyday in the mirror. They represent me. I am the faithless husband , every time I tell God I am going to sin anyway. No matter who it hurts, or what you think; sure there was a promise made, but I don’t owe you anything. I am the mother who, instead of looking to my God, I give in to the moment’s news and lash at those I feel have betrayed me; even though they came to me because they feel they have betrayed themselves.
So, remember these stories. Remember yourself, and who God has been to you. We have betrayed Him, but He will never betrays us. I know I struggle with feeling betrayed, even by God. Be careful, lest we become a Judas, and betray what God has assigned us learn through, for the thirty pieces of our pride.