Jaded

Just a little note before I start today's posting.  Yesterday was rough.  My sister fell and broke her hip.  She is in the hospital and having surgery this afternoon, so I'd appreciate your prayers for her.  The good part of this is that her platelet count which has been terribly low for a while due to a type of blood cancer is normal.  Her hip bone was not displaced in any way.  Her bones are strong.  Her heart is strong.  God has been looking out for her, and her son was with her when she fell.    So pray with me for my sister, especially that she is not afraid.

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Do you know how you see those movies on TV about the police and they delve into the psyche of a cop gone bad?  The policeperson has in almost every case become jaded towards the very society he/she is supposed to serve.  They're thinking is this:  Everyone lies.  Everyone steals.  Everyone wants to kill someone else.  Everyone is up to something.

You know the drill. 

Well, we have to watch ourselves too, so that we don't become jaded.  I have caught myself of late analyzing some sort of news story and popping off about how it was a lie or how it was misrepresented or how it was a diversion tactic.  It might have been, but see how easy it is to grow weary and to judge?

I had the rare privilege of getting to know a prison guard and seeing this man at his workplace.  He was so unusual that he just stuck out in the crowd.  The guy's name is Conrad.  He came to work every single day with an amazing attitude.  The inmate men at the prison liked him the best, but he wasn't stupid or naïve or a patsy.  He didn't break the rules or go outside the lines.  He did his job, but he did it showing dignity towards others in rare and special ways.

In that environment compared to lots of others, he had every reason to fall down the slippery slope of becoming jaded but he didn't.  He'd been there a long time.  He was no newbie, and yet he had this attitude that people were special no matter where they happened to be.  Visitors were special; inmates were special.

Sometimes I think about Conrad and hope that he is doing well.  He was an inspiration to me, and I would imagine he had a profound effect on the entire prison, or at least the area in which he worked.  The other guards were definitely jaded in a lot of instances.  They had no patience, no manners, no kindness. 

Seeing Conrad, and knowing that in at least one circumstance he intervened on behalf of someone, it occurs to me that we ought to know WHY he wasn't like the others.  In the case of a career police officer who didn't go that route, WHY didn't he become jaded?  In the case of a teacher who served for many years and still brought a zest for the job, WHY was she like that?

These are people, but they also come under a term that we like to call in the business work -- best practices.  These individuals adopt a different attitude in life.  Are they Christians?  Is it because of that reason?  I'd like to think so, because those of us who know God should shine like his light for the world.  We should be the Conrads out there who just know how to handle things and not lose our way.

Let's try really hard not to become jaded.  Naïve -- no.  We don't have to be naïve.  Stupid?  Of course not.  But we don't have to take the low road when we can just as easily take the high road.

One man once told my son that when you get out of bed in the morning, you have a choice each and every day.  You can get up and decide to be in a good mood, to treat others kindly, to go about your work with a good attitude, or you can get up crabby and unapproachable.  It's always our choice.

Karen