Just Smile and Nod
Just smile and nod approvingly, the more nods you give I guess the more the orator attains a sense of genuine interest from you. So do your best, even though your mind is over in Houston or Egypt even Afghanistan, let this little conversation occurring at this very present moment in Trinidad, the most southerly isle in the Caribbean, seem important. You know it really isn’t that important, especially if it leads to you feeling worse at the end of it. Sometimes you just have to learn to take in the good and zone out the bad and there is a lot of bad out there. No need for confrontation especially when you know the person speaking to you is self-absorbed in his own little world where he is the prime minister, the president and the chief advisor. I’ve seen so many people conjure deceptive webs of verbal discourses created to subtly wear away at the joy and peace of the heart. To such pay no attention or zone out. There is no need to start a “bring me down” collection. This is a collection where you gather up all the stuff that people would have said to you and every now and then bring them out and use them to bring yourself down.
There are those you expend energy behind (you see potential there) and then there are those who suck the energy out of you. Of a truth, many people suck….your energy and zeal. Don’t mistake my words for dislike or hatred, this article is about self preservation. You can’t be a help to anyone if you are helpless. If you arrive on the scene of an accident and there are injured persons strewn all over a barren street, you don’t just rush into the middle of it, you first survey the scene. So many of us try to help and end up being victims. So many people are hurt by the persons they try to help. This in fact happened to Jesus our Lord himself.
The best option for the Child of God is to be surrounded with Godly people. Honest people who will defend you because they love you. Choose wisely the persons you allow to influence your way of thinking. If we as believers allow ourselves to be swayed by every word that is spewed into the atmosphere, then we will be easily deceived. So many oppress us and we don’t even realize it. They speak words under the guise of caring and friendship but those words end up as heaviness in the heart, oppression.
Oppression so often shapes the mind conforming it to specific avenues of thinking. Look at history, Haiti is a good example. The people of Haiti overthrew a dictator (Baby Doc Duvalier) over two decades ago. The people did so because of absolute poverty, unspeakable brutality and oppression. The citizens of Haiti were murdered and beaten, treated like slaves, often abducted by the “secret police” tortured and killed, once you opposed the dictatorship. The people revolted and Duvalier fled the country. After they became free of this dictator they then went on a rampage seeking out the secret police, dragging these men into the streets and beating them to death. They did not realize that the years of oppression had crafted their way of thinking until they became just as the men who oppressed them.
The word of GOD is what is supposed to shape the countenance and character of a man. Take the invaluable word of God and conceal it in the innermost recesses of your being. This will afford you the priceless skill of zoning out unwanted influences. I love you and I pray for you but I really don’t need your “subtle” words of wisdom. There are people you must watch out for. Those that never hint even a modicum of propensity to change, after years of acquaintance, still say the same things about you, negative in all underlying intensions but seemingly amicable on the surface, from such …ZONE. Those that no matter how strong the Holy Spirit, how potent the word of God still manage to bring in motives for depression and bondage, from such…ZONE.
People who always try to deceive you into accepting their plight, they say what they feel but pose it as other peoples feelings, this is deception...from such zone.
One thing I’ve learned, the people that disrespect you will never respect you and many times they pretend to. I may go to the grave and never have the respect of all the persons whose lives I’ve influenced in some way. At the end of the day however, I know I would have lead a potent life, never letting anyone but God have the power over me. No one would have been allowed to influence me in any negative way. Even the people whom I’ve warned you to zone out would miss me because even though I paid no heed to some undesirable ways about them, I was there when they needed me to do what I’ve learned to do….smile and nod ;-).
