The High Ground

Louie Zamperini once said, ~To persevere, I think, is important for everybody. Don't give up, don't give in. There's always an answer to everything.~ If you think about it, life be considered a challenging experience indeed to the point where its as if we're holding a heavy wooden beam over our head and no matter how heavy it may be there's a focused determination to not drop it or face the harsh, painful consequences. For it was a tortuous punishment Louie endured at the hands of Matsuhiro "The Bird'' Watanabe during his time of capture as a POW in World War II and In a sense, there are individuals out there who so want us to drop the heavy wooden beam we hold high above our head that represent such thing as our integrity, self respect, and not to mention faith.

Without a doubt, a person's own integrity is a quality that is oftentimes held high and at the same time takes a brutal beating, in a manner of speaking. Thinking about it further, life can certainly be brutal and the pain it inflicts can certainly cause you to question and even break the standards set forth regarding being honest, having strong moral principles, and exuding moral uprightness. I think it's safe to say each one of us have felt the weight of the heavy beam representing our integrity as it's been sorely tested in regards to morally ethical situations where we've mentally and emotionally struggled to not let ourselves drop what is deemed a highly valuable, as well as considerably important character trait.

As I said, there are individuals out there that have a Matsuhiro "The Bird'' Wantanabe mentality and have sort of twisted pleasure in wanting us to drop our quintessential wooden beam, especially when it pertains to holding up firmly our own self respect. In other words, haters. True, each one of us should most definitely have pride and confidence in ourselves with the added belief of deserving to be treated with utmost respect. Of course, it's completely different than having a big ego that exudes a tremendous amount of narcissistic arrogance. Essentially, the beneficial aspects of proudly holding up one's self respect in a positive way is that it helps build a strong sense of self worth that in turn establishes a potentially strong, worthwhile relationship.

Hebrews 10:23 says, ~Let us hold fast his profession of faith without wavering;(for he is faithful that promised;) For the question can be asked concerning the heavy wooden beam that is faith, how many of you have experienced the verbal brutality of individuals trying to have you drop it so much so it felt like you were physically taking a beating? The mental and emotional beating one can go through can drain anyone's strength whereby causing a spiritual struggle/warfare within yourself to hold it up. What it primarily comes down to is not succumbing to that small seed of doubt being planted mentally that once it starts growing it wraps you all up emotionally and the strong convictions you started out with gradually weaken.

In retrospect, life has a way of painfully pushing/beating us down and seeing how much we can take all the while doing our very best in continuing to hold up high the heavy wooden beam representing our own personal and professional standards set for ourselves. Marriage, family, friendship, worth ethic, moral character, self esteem, spiritual testimony, etc. are what each of us hopefully hold at such a high importance it would seriously be disappointing if any of them were to be dropped. Yet, all are continuous work in progress where mistakes will be made that are learning experiences. In the end, always have the high ground with solidly firm footing because if you have that it makes the haters work that much harder to try to knock your heavy wooden beam out your hands.