I've always held the belief that we are judged on our journey. I worked in the prison every week for 5-6 years and I saw some guys in the level 4 unit that had come a LONG way from where they started. But they were still pretty "bad" guys....
So what does it mean if your staring point in life is with a decent set of parents and not much trauma...
vs.
being one of several neglected siblings of a single parent that is ill-equipped to care for themselves much less you and then you experience the consequences of a life without guidance and love....
Let's say our goal is to strive to live a Christ-like life; a 100%. I've met some prisoners whose past story and circumstance would leave you thinking they must have started somewhere close to 0%. Seeing how far they'd come from there, I was often left wondering what am I doing with my life....
On the outside looking in, most of the prisoners still look and act like "bad" guys. But to see the struggle and the success as to how far they've come....amazing.
Where did you start life? Was your start with circumstances of a middle of the road C? Or dd you grow up with a great set of parents and the understanding of a loving God and a life that might be more akin to an A or a B?
Where are you now? What have you done with what you were given? Did you start comfy and stay there, never pushing your life to be more Christ-like?
It's easy to fall under the spell of thinking that you're "not a bad person" and that there are lots of people out there worse than you. But in the end, what if what mattered was what you did with the life you started with? What if we are not graded against each other, but against ourselves and how far we come?
