Hey! I deal with new people all the time and the thing I hear most often is – “HELP! I don’t know anything and I see all this scary stuff on people’s newsfeeds and I am worried that I don’t have enough time to learn what I need to know. I had no idea I was on the wrong path and now I feel like I have been blindsided! I feel like I have too far to travel – like there’s no hope and there’s no use even trying.”
I have news for you – you WERE blindsided. The Father called you when He called you, for a reason, and it wasn’t so that you would only have a few weeks to prepare. Don’t get discouraged, start small – don’t listen to the fear mongering, and do NOT listen to the voices telling you that you have to have everything figured out tomorrow. It’s impossible. No one would expect it of you, well no one reasonable anyway.
Find some reasonable people who are willing to travel with you in patience and kindness. Watch out for the unloving, grumpy, divisive, impatient, cruel, prideful, harsh, volatile and who lack the ability to control their tongues – that isn’t zeal, it’s just bad, immature fruit. Get with those people and you will feel hopeless in a big hurry. You’ll fall into fear, and then anger and then pride – then you will be derailed. Then you will camp out around some pointless agenda and stop growing. This walk is about growing, every single day, not about growing all in one day because it doesn’t work like that. When you do find yourself focusing on one thing like it’s the holy grail, snap out of it and get back on the path and don’t waste your time looking back and kicking yourself.
You’re a little child again, so treat yourself like you’d treat a toddler – with kindness and compassion. This is the Kingdom of Heaven, not New York City. There are unmerciful people out there who simply want to get everyone in a panic – why? Because they are in a panic and they feel better if you join them in it. Don’t go there, there is no profit in it.
Maybe you came late to the game but you are in the game – learn the rules, learn good sportsmanship, learn to play like a member of a team, listen to your coaches and ignore the hecklers. And REALLY ignore the people who criticize the way you play when you’ve never even seen them on the court…. (social media does not count as the court, by the way – we can all be total fakers there)
Find one decent person and then you will generally find that their friends are pretty decent as well. Ally yourself with the anger management people and you will generally find out that their friends are jerks and doormats.
Listen, there’s time to make sure that you are with the right kind of people, to find the right kind of teachers, and to explore the path you are on. It’s okay – the only people who are going to scream about your childlike progress are also the kind of folks who resent being stuck behind a wheelchair in a crowded store. Don’t worry about pleasing people who thrive on being offended and aren’t going to rest until you are offended too – they don’t define your future success.
So I guess I am saying – just chill out. There are people out there who won’t take into account how long you’ve been walking this out, they don’t care – they just want to control the way you think and feel about the things they think are important.
