Busi 321

Things to Think About
Have you ever cut in line? Are there times when you have been undeservingly favored? How do you look back on those times now?

Yes I have cut in line before. The few times where I did cut in line I would look back at the people behind me and most times I would feel guilty to the point where I would just leave the line. I think the reason I felt so bad was because I could see myself in their eyes. Although no one really tried to get me to get out of line, I could see the emotion in their face and that made it personal. I felt like I had personally disrespected every person in the line individually. There has been several times in my life where I felt that I was undeservingly favored. There was a time in my life where I felt undeservingly favored. I was raised in the church most of my life, but as I grew into an adult I turned away from God. Honestly it was a very conscious decision. The basis of my decision was logically correct based on Revelation 3:5 where God says “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.” There were things I wanted to do that was wrong in the eyes of God and because I didn’t want to be “luke warm”, I chose to leave God because I felt that I would rather be completely in the world than to halfway love God. Of course looking back on it I was very foolish. The reason I feel I was favored is the same reason I feel I was foolish. I could have lost my life like many of my peers I went to school with. I was good friends with a classmate while I was attending the first university I went to. My classmate was gunned down and robbed in his home. Another was shot in the face in front of his apartment after a party. Both of these young men were friends of mine, they both had good hearts and died young. I’m not sure where they are spending eternity, but as I compared my life to theirs. I thought about my conscious decision to leave God. I knew that I didn’t deserve to be covered by God’s grace and mercy. It brought me to a state of sorrow for some time. Today I look at it in a different way. I realize how loving God is and I know God spared me for a purpose.

Recall a situation in which you felt envy. In the end, did things turn out differently than you expected? For example, did you find out the person was not as fortunate as you thought?
When I was in high school I was on the football team. I played safety, defensive end, and linebacker. I really enjoyed playing wide receiver most of all. I was forced to play the other positions because I was the only one who could lock the positions down. Although I never intended to play sports beyond high school I was somewhat jealous because the position that I wanted was given to an individual that was not as skilled as I was. Many of my coaches promoted the other guys to the scouts and would always give them proper respects in the papers but I was never promoted in that way. Years later I look back on it and I realize that even though I was a good athlete, I was a better student. I had a lot going for myself and I realized that the reason these guys were promoted so much was because they were not as intelligent and this was their way to get into a decent college. Many of those guys ended up failing out of school within the second and even first semester. Others ended up getting caught up in the legal system. There was a purpose for my life, just as there is for everyone else’s life. There is no reason to focus on what you think you ought to have because only God knows what is best. Now I look to Proverbs 14:30 when I feel jealous it reads “A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.”