Take a Look at Your Lifestyle
There are some moments in life we find utterly incomprehensible. We say things like, ‘I just don’t believe it’, or ‘I thought I was seeing things’ or ‘I thought it can’t be happening to me.’ It happens in many ways. A perfectly healthy person who has never consulted a doctor suddenly has a stroke or a heart attack in late middle life. One of our ‘heroes’ falls from grace. We are let down or openly taken to pieces by our best friend. This is how Israel felt when Amos turned his guns on her. All the surrounding nations were fair game for his attacks if that was what he wanted. Most of them probably deserved it. But not me. I’m special . . . different . . . always have been. ‘No’, says Amos; ‘you too.’
But why? If you have been let down by your friend you must have been party to the friendship and there must have been years of understanding between you. So what can have happened to bring this about? Start with yourself, not with your friend. Things don’t happen without a cause. If your friend is suddenly making a big noise there must be something to make a big noise about. If you feel trapped there must have been a trap, so who set it and why? Instead of simply reacting, blaming the messenger or being content with the last cause in the chain, dig deeper. Such experiences can be an opportunity to examine your own lifestyle to see if there is any way you might have contributed to it.
Having got so far the next thing to do is to pull yourself together. It need not be the end of the world. Friendships can recover and be rebuilt. People can pick themselves up from the most dire tragedies and live again. There is always some hope to cling to with a God who hopes in spite of hopelessness, much as a shepherd finds consolation in an ear or a couple of legs rescued from death. Only those who refuse to listen, to learn from their experience and change their ways are doomed to total destruction and that is their choice.