in life there will always be people who disappoint us. they'll make promises and break them, they'll fail to come through when we need them most. but that's not all; there will be many who hurt us on a deeper level. these are the people who will pretend to be our friends, but then--in jealousy, bitterness or selfishness-- will stab us in the back. they'll lie, manipulate, betray, laugh at our failures, try to make us feel like nothing.
eventually, we'll come to understand who our true friends are. there may not be very many; among the thousands of people we come to know, there will be comparatively few we can really depend on. and unfortunately, even those few select family members and friends can change. human nature seems to have a problem with consistency, doesn't it?
where are the men and women "for all seasons?" where are the Thomas Mores? what happened to loyalty, integrity, and devotion? are we too distracted to dedicate ourselves to others? are we too selfish to think only of what we can get from people before we think about what we can give to people?
all around me i see relationships crumbling, whether they be friendships, romantic relationships, or family relationships. i watch people i care about try to find the answers to fix these relationships. they read books, go to therapists, get professional opinions--but in the end, after all the searching for answers, the problem always comes down to one thing: selfishness. i am making a bold statement here, but it makes sense. All problems in relationships stem from selfishness. think about it. if we want to build better relationships, we need to first change our own selfishness to self less ness.
because i never want to be a person who disappoints or purposely hurts someone else, because i want to be the friend and the lover and the family member "for all seasons," i am going to work on being less selfish. i pray i'll be more like Thomas More or any other person who lived a life based on principles and integrity. these are the people who build solid relationships. these are the people who understand how to be there for others in the way that Christ is here for us. these are the people who get what life is about.
Very interesting post. I saw the link you posted on my take about this subject matter on my blog. Interesting you entitled this "for all seasons" because I believe that so-called friends are just seasonal. Especially with the advent of social media. It is hard to build solid friendship when you have over 1000 friends.
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