True Nobility

"True nobility is in being superior to your own previous self." - Hindu Proverb

I took a college course in Philosophy of Religion a year or so ago. It was a class on understanding religion on a philosophical (thinking) level - not the spiritual. In this class we discussed the Hindu religion. Not to get too confusing, the Hindu's have many gods, demi-gods, and a whole bunch of other gods in-between and outside of. A part of their religion is that, depending on what you do in this life, you will reap the fruits or pay the price for evils - in the next life. To them, you should always be improving from life to life to life..etc, until you reach the stage/level of a god type. In this, you can go on forever, screwing up or making better your situation in a specific life. This is why you see a lot of hindu people, not doing much in this life. They say, "I'll just wait till my next life and take care of it." Being a Christian, I only have one life to live, I have only one chance and I have to make it count. Now I can argue about what I think is right or what I think is wrong, but I'm not. One chance for eternity for me, I'd have it no other way. Now saying and understanding this, with the quote of the Hindu proverb I started off with, translate it to my Christian values and I have one life to out do my previous self. My previous self being where I was at yesterday, last week, last month, last year, 5 years ago...you get the point. Now there are always up and downs that we are going to go through, always though try to out do yourself.
I've been lazy lately, not really depressed but discouraged, a little bit of a failure, kind of bringing myself down and not building my whole self up and moving forward. It seems at a certain point in my life, I had everything I dreamed about, I had what I set out to do. I was what I dreamed of becoming. One day though, I dreamed greater dreams, I saw a new future...I attained new goals - visions. On my recent journey to accomplish these new goals and visions, I lost my way. I lost my nobility. I stopped growing. I regressed. I allowed failures in relationships that were at my fault to effect me.I allowed financial struggles - which I could have taken full control of - compound upon themselves in a negative way. I consciously spiritually disconnected myself from my Creator. I started to lose against my previous self.
I know the point of where I was when everything was right, where everything was in motion, where I was at the peak. When I get to that point again and I will, I will not look back. I will have learned this lesson of regression and not let it take hold of me again. I will be consciously aware. Before I leave this world, I must surpass myself - I must reach and attain...True Nobility.

Hand-outs or Hand-ups

"Every handout has a price and that price is a loss of freedom. We must preserve our talents of self-sufficiency, our ability to create things for ourselves, and our love of independence." - Cameron C. Taylor

I remember once when I was 16 that I wanted a brand new car. Going to one of the wealthier schools in the area, many class mates got what they wanted for a car, I didn't. I believe if I got the brand new 1999 Toyota Celica that I wanted, I would have broke my parents. That wasn't it though, my Dad didn't want to give me a hand-out. I remember leaving a restaurant with him, looking at that car in the parking lot and him saying - "Go out, get a job, work for it, and that car will be yours." I pretty much hated that statement. As we drove away all I could dream about was sitting behind that car and driving it like I would a spaceship. The summer right before my Junior year I went out and got a job at the Corpus Christi Airport. I would wake up at 5 in the morning and go wash cars all day at the car rental business named "Avis." 5am till 6pm, 6 days a week during the summer. As my friends went on vacations, as they had fun nights together, as they had girlfriends; I worked. By the end of the summer I had saved about 3 thousand dollars. Not enough for a brand new car. Going to my next choice, I started to search the classifieds. One by one, my selection was narrowed and diminished. Right before my Jr. year started and as I quit that summer job, I came across an old 1985 black Toyota Celica. It had a sunroof and a cd player with somewhat of a stereo system. The car needed work, the gears didn't shift too well, and the oil burned smoke if I went faster than 65 mph. Not what I wanted to have to impress the girls with at school. Since I worked for it though, it was mine, all mine, "My Car!" I drove that sucker into the ground. About a year later I would have the biggest life threatening car wreck - as I plowed into some trees - that I would ever have. I remember looking at it as it was a total destruction telling myself - "That was MY car. The first thing I OWNED outright." My Dad did have the money I believe, he could have helped me get something nicer, he could have given in and gave me what I wanted; but he taught me a lesson. He gave me a hand up, rather than a hand out. Now I find myself in almost the same situation in life, but this time the stakes are much greater. I worked and bought my own condo, a house, a motorcycle, a truck, a car, and some other things that I have lost, rented out, or wrecked since then. When I down right owned something, the value of it - I can't explain, is immeasurable. I owned these things, and those that I used debt to buy, are down right killing me. If I only could remember that lesson before I put myself in this mess would I be that much closer to my dreams. How impatient I was to get something I didn't work for, something that I couldn't wait to have. I have had a loss of freedom these last couple years, but it's my own fault. I will work my way out of it, I just have to get back to what lessons my Dad taught me when I was younger. I believe if he hadn't have taught me that lesson then, the situation I'm in now would be that much greater. I know what I need to do to succeed. How many of us are looking for hand outs rather than hand ups...Thanks Dad, I won't give hand outs to people anymore and I won't be looking for someone to give me one neither. It's all about giving people "hand-ups" from now on.

To change the world...

“When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn’t change my town and as an older man, I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realized that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could indeed have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.”

Unknown Monk
1100AD