There is this sweet girl I only know as an acquaintance thanks to the internet. More specifically, we are Facebook “friends” so I have a keyhole view into her life. She recently wrote a blog titled And If Not, He Is Still Good that got this Seattle Photographer thinking. This girl and I do not share the same beliefs nor religious sentiments, but like all things I do not necessarily agree with, I take what I like and leave the rest.
There’s two elements I loved about her message: loyalty and reverence. She referenced a Biblical passage, “This verse comes from the book of Daniel, which talks about, long story short, three men declaring that God will deliver them from death… For the sake of time I want to focus on one tiny part in particular, verses 3:17-18: “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and He will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. And even if He does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” [Daniel 3:17-18].”
So even in the face of being burned alive, they were totally good with keeping their convictions. That’s kind of awesome. That’s loyalty. That’s respect.
I began to ponder these values and look for them in the world around me. Perhaps it’s my own skeptical view, but there is such a lack of loyalty and reverence. Long before I can remember or was even born, there was a time when the whole country cried when the President was shot. Democrat or Republican, there was a generation of people that respected their Commander in Chief. There was a time that you remained friends even though people screwed up. There was a time when you stayed married. There was a time when working for a company more than 10 years meant something.
Today, we just move on to the next job, husband, wife, friend. We barely blink. We don’t even flinch.
My acquaintance also went on to quote Garth Brooks, “Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”
What I got out of both powerful messages was this: we need to rely on ourselves and our own convictions. We need to be loyal and kind to ourselves and ideals. And even when things don’t go our way, we keep on keeping on. We don’t get to blame or point the finger at our wife, boss, or friend who wronged us. We stay strong in our love for them and do what is best for us, and sometimes that doesn’t mean walking away. It means staying there. It means loyalty.
As parents, we are loyal and have reverence for our children. Can you imagine if that was translated to the other areas of our lives? We might be able to change, and by changing ourselves, we just might change the world.
