Westside Story Newspaper – Online The News of The Empire – Sharing the Quest for Excellence
By Lou Yeboah
(EMPIRE NEWS NETWORK—ENN)— “What you’ve done to me is already done back to you….Celie: [holding a knife to Albert’s throat] I curse you. Until you do right by me; everything you think about is gonna crumble! [Sofia]: Don’t do it Miss Celie. Don’t trade places with what I been through. [Shug]: Come on Miss Celie let’s go to the car. [Sofia]: He ain’t worth it, he ain’t worth it. [Albert]: Who you think you is? You can’t curse nobody… [Celie]: Until you do right by me, everything you even think about gonna fail! The jail you planned for me is the one you gonna rot in! Time for me to get away from you, and enter into Creation. And your dead body’d be just the welcome mat I need. [Grady]: It’s been a pleasure meeting all of you. Good-bye.”
“You reap what you sow” is a well-known idiom, but this principle is also Biblical. The Lord gives principles in Scripture to serve as warnings and as an encouragement. In [Galatians 6:7], His Word states, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” The principle applies to everyone, both Christians and non-Christians. This principle is irrevocable; there is no escape, either for the believer or for the unbeliever. It is a law of life. But herein lies the root cause of the careless and indulgent lifestyle of many people. They are deceived. They either do not believe the truth, or they think they will somehow be the exceptions to God’s laws. But as [2 Corinthians 5:10] reveals: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”
The fact that we reap what we sow is good news for those who sow good habits, but a frightening thought for those currently involved in ungodly activities such as promiscuity, drug and alcohol abuse, neglect of family, or mistreatment of others in order to climb the ladder of success. We cannot sow crabgrass and expect to reap pineapples. We cannot sow disobedience to God and expect to reap His blessing. What we sow, we reap. Let us not deceive ourselves: We will reap the harvest of our lives.
I don’t know who this is for, but spitting out a bunch of hostile, angry, mean, resentful words at someone is not going to help. It is not going to make you a better person, it is not going to make them a better person, and it won’t improve your relationship. Just because you feel something doesn’t mean you have to say it. And you don’t have to let your feelings control your actions. Much of living the Christian life comes down to how well we get along with other people. Scripture makes it plain that God places tremendous value on unity.
As you go through life you’re going to find some people who simply rub you the wrong way. Maybe they don’t do anything specific—but there’s something about them that gets under your skin. Also, there will be times when you find that you rub someone else the wrong way. You might not have anything against this person, but they’ve got something against you. No matter how hard you try, they’ve decided in advance not to like you. I tell you, take the high road. Your actions are more important than your feelings. Sometimes you have to cover your feelings by “putting on” the right behavior. Your feelings may be sending you in one direction emotionally, but you can clothe yourself with attitudes and behavior that move you in the right direction. Paul said, “Put on compassion…put on kindness…put on gentleness.” You may not feel these things, but you can “put them on”—at least temporarily. Some people say, “That seems hypocritical,” but it’s not. If you feel dislike for another person, and you show them kindness, you’re not being hypocritical, you’re being holy! Besides, the Bible never tells us that we will be judged according to our feelings. It says again and again we are judged according to our actions. You can’t always control the way you feel, but you can control the way you dress. So, dress for success! Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. When you deal with conflict you put your feelings aside and you put a layer of holiness between you and the other person.
As [Matthew 7:12] says, “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” It is written in Proverbs to “ponder the path of your feet, and … remove your foot from evil.” [Proverbs 4:26-27]. We need to think about our choices and what the consequences of our choices are. They can lead to corruption, or to eternal life. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
Everything in life goes exactly according to what is written in God’s Word. There are no exceptions. This is a law of life that affects everyone, whether a believer or a non-believer.
As [Celie] said: Dis life be ova soon. Heaven last always.
The Color Purple – a film based on Alice Walker’s novel, directed by Steven Spielberg
