April 26, 2004

•  Faithfulness; loyalty, dedication
  

  There are qualities we are taught mean something, hold a place of importance, and when seen in others, we emulate them, consciously or without even being aware that we are attempting to replicate them in our own lives.

  
  

  I know being cool was something every young person wanted to be when I was a teen. I wanted to be cool and hoped that my acting as someone who was already considered cool was enough to gain me that status. The thing that happened was, I, and other would be cool people, saw the characteristics in the person with the lofty status, that we felt made them cool. I guess I was even one of the cool people in some other’s eyes, though I always wanted to be more so than I thought I was at any given point. Either way, one characteristic that many people had that was important to me, and seemingly to others, was faithfulness to some ideal or cause.

  
  

  A dedication to what they believed and even if it was a lesser cause than saving diminishing species or service to God or world peace, the fact that they seemingly gave no ground when this ideal was challenged was a source of their coolness. It still is.

  
  

  I recall a number of the peers or leaders in church or school or on a job and I do believe this characteristic is a part of each that I can so vividly bring to mind. People want to see someone who believes in… something… anything… that they feel deeply enough to not be swayed no matter the cost.

  
  

  Now obviously, there are some causes, which fall so far short of being good or worthwhile, that they seem more lunacy or worse. I’m not saying all causes are, in themselves, enough for a person to be considered one of the higher ones. And I’d not want to imply this is all that makes anyone worthy of some place in history, even if that history is just what a few classmates remember even when they are 42 and looking back at those that impacted them in some way.

  
  

  There is though something nearly sacred about a person who stands for something they believe fervently. Those who act on this belief daily as a part of their own creed, so the people around them can see it clearly, are admired.

  
  

  We’ve come to a point when so many blow with the wind, not sure what they do believe. It’s a day and age that we have difficulty finding anyone to firmly state their belief on many issues, since it’s more politically correct to hold your comments and tolerate everything and everyone, even if they hold values and practice things that make other’s lives less pleasant or are even hurtful.

  
  

  At times, I long for the days when there were “wrongs and rights” professed and the majority followed these ideals or paid a price. Then again, I see there was a need for some issues to be challenged and the good that came from these challenges.

  
  

  Not meaning to sound wishy-washy I can say, there are things I firmly and absolutely believe. I could list so many you’d weary before reading the list and move on to another’s site. Then there are things I thought I believed when younger that I have had the opportunity to re-evaluate and couldn’t give my apologetics as to why, then, I thought they were such absolutes. Anyway, I hold dearly to some basic truths that have proven to be honorable and I stand on them with both feet planted firmly.

  
  

  Do you have this foundation? If so, what is one basic truth in your ever changing, shaky world that you know?

  • 6:48 am
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