At some point in everyone's life, life just stops working right.
Everything seems to end up in disaster and mayhem.
Relationships are broken and damaged.
You feel more alone than you've ever felt before in your life.
You worry about everything to the point where you can no longer sleep at night.
Maybe you've even turned to drugs, alcohol, sex or just working too much to escape your pain only to realize it added a whole new set of problems to your misery.
Maybe you've driven yourself into debt buying stuff you don't need so other people will like and accept you.
Maybe you've isolated yourself, hoping to hide from the world, hoping it will go away.
Maybe you are so miserable you have even considered ending it all.
Pain and suffering seem to be an integral part of life.
When our pain becomes unbearable and we are ready to give up we inevitably get angry with God.
We yell at him and tell him how mad we are that he did this to us.
We wonder why God hates us.
We wonder if he even exists at all.
And if he does, why would he let us suffer so much? What did we ever do to deserve this? Unfortunately, we are the ones messing up our lives, not God.
There are three things you can do to get your life back in order: First, stop blaming God or anyone else for your problems.
We are creatures of free will.
That means we decide what we will or will not do when presented with a choice.
It's always easier to blame someone else than to admit to yourself that no one "made you do it.
" If you're broke and have a house full of stuff, the store didn't force you to buy all that junk.
If you're hooked on drugs, no one forced you to try it the first time.
Admit it, you knew drugs were addictive; you'd seen the public service announcements.
You tried them because you thought you could handle it.
We aren't perfect.
We can't handle everything that comes our way.
We need God to handle all the stuff we can't handle.
Every time you are faced with a tough choice, a small voice, called the conscience, tells you not to do it.
But we often do it anyway and then are left wondering what went wrong.
The conscience is the "other" choice.
The one you should have made.
God controls the conscience.
The simple truth is that bad things happen when we don't listen to God.
Imagine how refreshing it would be if everyone took responsibility for their poor choices.
We wouldn't need political debates anymore because there would be no need for finger-pointing and blame-assigning.
We wouldn't need lawyers of any kind because our word would be golden and our promises sound.
We wouldn't need half the pharmaceuticals out there because we wouldn't be making ourselves sick with all the lying and deception that takes such a physical toll on our bodies.
We wouldn't need to play games at work to get ahead because everyone would trust each other.
Second, remove the things that aren't working in your life.
When things aren't working in our lives, we tend to surround ourselves with people and things that validate our view of the world.
If you are pretending to have more money and status than you actual have, you will be spending yourself right into the poorhouse trying to keep up appearances.
You will probably shun people who are "beneath" you to maintain your charade.
You will surround yourself with people who make you feel bad about yourself because they think you're someone else.
They are basically rejecting the "real" you.
Eventually being around people will make you feel even guiltier and stressed out as you try to maintain your false self-image.
Get rid of people who won't let you be yourself.
If you told your "friends" you are broker than broke and can't go with them on that exotic vacation, would you still be friends? If the answer is no, they need to go.
Find people who allow you to be who you are-warts and all.
No one is perfect.
Let me repeat that in case you were napping-no one is perfect.
We all have to start somewhere and finish somewhere in this life, and it won't always be the same place.
Some of us are richer, taller, smarter, better looking, kinder, etc.
and some of us aren't.
We all bring gifts and talents to this world.
God has gifted each one of us with a uniqueness all our own.
We may not be good at making money but we can bring a smile to a sick child's face.
We may not be able to parlay $100 into a multi-million dollar real estate conglomerate but we can make an amazing soufflé that makes us a sought after chef.
We may not be driving a Mercedes but we can fix it! We are all valuable in our own way, and we all contribute to making the lives of other people better.
The sooner you figure out who you are meant to be, not who you aspire to be, the sooner you'll find true joy and happiness in this life.
And finally, to make your life start working again, start helping others.
Nothing puts your own problems in perspective like helping someone who's problems are even worse.
Not getting that raise at work doesn't look so bad after you've seen a few homeless people who don't even have two pennies to rub together.
Nothing makes wrinkles look better than volunteering at a hospital burn ward and seeing the disfiguring scars that burns leave.
Nothing makes you feel better about passing up an expensive night out than serving hungry children at a soup kitchen who haven't eaten in days.
Nothing makes you appreciate your own annoying family than to visit a lonely older person in a nursing home who hasn't had a visitor in months.
God tells us our life is to be a life of service to others, not service to the almighty dollar or the credit card companies.
We should give what we have to those less fortunate than us.
And there is always someone somewhere less fortunate than you.
If you don't have money to give to a worthy cause, you can give of your time by volunteering.
If you think you're too busy to help others, you better hope the person who is going to help you some day isn't going to be too busy for you.
Life may be rotten right now, but you can turn it around into a simple, blame free life of service to others just by asking for it to be so.
Remember you always have more than one choice in life.
Start choosing the "other" way and things will get better.
Everything seems to end up in disaster and mayhem.
Relationships are broken and damaged.
You feel more alone than you've ever felt before in your life.
You worry about everything to the point where you can no longer sleep at night.
Maybe you've even turned to drugs, alcohol, sex or just working too much to escape your pain only to realize it added a whole new set of problems to your misery.
Maybe you've driven yourself into debt buying stuff you don't need so other people will like and accept you.
Maybe you've isolated yourself, hoping to hide from the world, hoping it will go away.
Maybe you are so miserable you have even considered ending it all.
Pain and suffering seem to be an integral part of life.
When our pain becomes unbearable and we are ready to give up we inevitably get angry with God.
We yell at him and tell him how mad we are that he did this to us.
We wonder why God hates us.
We wonder if he even exists at all.
And if he does, why would he let us suffer so much? What did we ever do to deserve this? Unfortunately, we are the ones messing up our lives, not God.
There are three things you can do to get your life back in order: First, stop blaming God or anyone else for your problems.
We are creatures of free will.
That means we decide what we will or will not do when presented with a choice.
It's always easier to blame someone else than to admit to yourself that no one "made you do it.
" If you're broke and have a house full of stuff, the store didn't force you to buy all that junk.
If you're hooked on drugs, no one forced you to try it the first time.
Admit it, you knew drugs were addictive; you'd seen the public service announcements.
You tried them because you thought you could handle it.
We aren't perfect.
We can't handle everything that comes our way.
We need God to handle all the stuff we can't handle.
Every time you are faced with a tough choice, a small voice, called the conscience, tells you not to do it.
But we often do it anyway and then are left wondering what went wrong.
The conscience is the "other" choice.
The one you should have made.
God controls the conscience.
The simple truth is that bad things happen when we don't listen to God.
Imagine how refreshing it would be if everyone took responsibility for their poor choices.
We wouldn't need political debates anymore because there would be no need for finger-pointing and blame-assigning.
We wouldn't need lawyers of any kind because our word would be golden and our promises sound.
We wouldn't need half the pharmaceuticals out there because we wouldn't be making ourselves sick with all the lying and deception that takes such a physical toll on our bodies.
We wouldn't need to play games at work to get ahead because everyone would trust each other.
Second, remove the things that aren't working in your life.
When things aren't working in our lives, we tend to surround ourselves with people and things that validate our view of the world.
If you are pretending to have more money and status than you actual have, you will be spending yourself right into the poorhouse trying to keep up appearances.
You will probably shun people who are "beneath" you to maintain your charade.
You will surround yourself with people who make you feel bad about yourself because they think you're someone else.
They are basically rejecting the "real" you.
Eventually being around people will make you feel even guiltier and stressed out as you try to maintain your false self-image.
Get rid of people who won't let you be yourself.
If you told your "friends" you are broker than broke and can't go with them on that exotic vacation, would you still be friends? If the answer is no, they need to go.
Find people who allow you to be who you are-warts and all.
No one is perfect.
Let me repeat that in case you were napping-no one is perfect.
We all have to start somewhere and finish somewhere in this life, and it won't always be the same place.
Some of us are richer, taller, smarter, better looking, kinder, etc.
and some of us aren't.
We all bring gifts and talents to this world.
God has gifted each one of us with a uniqueness all our own.
We may not be good at making money but we can bring a smile to a sick child's face.
We may not be able to parlay $100 into a multi-million dollar real estate conglomerate but we can make an amazing soufflé that makes us a sought after chef.
We may not be driving a Mercedes but we can fix it! We are all valuable in our own way, and we all contribute to making the lives of other people better.
The sooner you figure out who you are meant to be, not who you aspire to be, the sooner you'll find true joy and happiness in this life.
And finally, to make your life start working again, start helping others.
Nothing puts your own problems in perspective like helping someone who's problems are even worse.
Not getting that raise at work doesn't look so bad after you've seen a few homeless people who don't even have two pennies to rub together.
Nothing makes wrinkles look better than volunteering at a hospital burn ward and seeing the disfiguring scars that burns leave.
Nothing makes you feel better about passing up an expensive night out than serving hungry children at a soup kitchen who haven't eaten in days.
Nothing makes you appreciate your own annoying family than to visit a lonely older person in a nursing home who hasn't had a visitor in months.
God tells us our life is to be a life of service to others, not service to the almighty dollar or the credit card companies.
We should give what we have to those less fortunate than us.
And there is always someone somewhere less fortunate than you.
If you don't have money to give to a worthy cause, you can give of your time by volunteering.
If you think you're too busy to help others, you better hope the person who is going to help you some day isn't going to be too busy for you.
Life may be rotten right now, but you can turn it around into a simple, blame free life of service to others just by asking for it to be so.
Remember you always have more than one choice in life.
Start choosing the "other" way and things will get better.
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