STRUGGLES

Let me say from the outset that there are people with real struggles... people who earnestly seek to overcome emotional and physical addictions. Those people are not the focus of this blog post. I’m addressing the rest of us who use “struggles” as the consummate excuse so that we can behave however we naturally will at the time. “It’s my struggle” is used with everything from issues with temper, pornography, homosexuality, and having a shopping-habit to issues with rude and ungracious behavior. “It’s my struggle” also allows us to have an excuse to access the deepest and darkest areas of our desires. For some, there is the thrill of flirting with the untoward side of human behavior. Yet for others, “my struggle” blends with the conglomeration of society making our improper behaviors seem acceptable. We would perhaps like to give them up if they would magically go away, but if it requires too much hard work and discipline, then we accept it and thus call it a “struggle.” Moreover, we expect others to tolerate and accept our struggles too. Soon we have what is reflected in today’s society: A culture of “struggling” people who downwardly redefine normalcy, ethics, and morality. We should be mindful that our “struggles” may become acceptable to society, but they sure don’t become acceptable to God. We should be careful not to think that “struggles” are acceptable excuses for undisciplined and bad behaviors.