Have You Been Robbed?

I detest thieves!

I recently bought a circular fan as a donation to the gym room at my apartments.  It’s pretty neat that my apartment complex has this small room with a treadmill, exercise bike, and weight machine. Hey, it’s not a 24-Hour Fitness or anything but the convenience works. Unfortunately, the apartment staff has a tendency to turn the A/C off after hours making the room sometimes unbearable.  The fan I bought was nothing fancy, just something I found at Wal-Mart the other day. After dragging my body to the room yesterday morning before work, I was so mad that I could spit nails--what a site that would be.  The new fan I bought was already gone! The nerve! You know that feeling, the disheartening and anger that someone would actually steal.

Usually it’s not the “things” we are really mad about but the complete lack of respect to robe us of our values. Often we think of material things as the stuff being stolen from us.  However things can be taken away from us almost on a daily basis. 

Have you ever “given” or practically “sold” yourself away? When we give away our rights, privileges, happiness, or settle for less than what we deserve, our peace and joy is robbed right from underneath us.  Unless we have peace inside of who we really are, the money and material things are just duct tape – a temporary fix for happiness.  True, I’d like to win the lottery someday just so I can see if money really does buys me happiness. Yet there are a lot more important things to me than that. 

My heritage, my family, my friends, my beliefs, and my values are priceless!  Those are the things that need to be protected the most.  Its unfortunate that the society we live in today are the thieves – the media, the politicians, the entertainment business, the economy, and even false religious leaders are the ones stealing from us.  We lose a part of ourselves when we become like mindless sheep and abide by what society says who we are or who we ought to be.   Like robots we allow these people to take advantage of our weakness instead of standing up for ourselves and our values.
What's more disturbing are the innocent young lives that have had their life literally taken away from someone because they were unable to defend themselves.

It breaks my heart to see and hear about those who steal or give away a part of themselves. Often I find myself giving away a part of me, trying to make someone happier or feeling that I am not good enough.  In my past relationship, I had to pay for nearly everything. In a sense, I “paid” to have a relationship and gave away the true me. The true lost is being without the inner peace. So in an odd way, those who steal are being robbed themselves from the inner peace.

Sometimes when I have had things taken from me, I want to seek refuge.  The anger and powerlessness I feel overwhelms me.  Then I am reminded of a couple of Bible verses, Leviticus 19:18 which states “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD” and Romans 12:19 that states “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"^[a]says the Lord.” In due time, God will restore what was lost.

Inner peace...blah, blah, blah…whatever and who cares…right? Well, once you find it and know it well, that inner peace will be your most valuable asset and the one thing you can take with you to the grave. 

Re-Evaluate Your Values and Protect Them!