Hey! Welcome back! I wasn't sure I'd have the time to sit and chat with you today about the book, but I do have a small window of time. Today we are on chapter 3. The author/speaker is Mary Kassian and the title is "you've come a long way, baby!" You might recognize this well known slogan from the 1960's Virginia Slims cigarette ads. These ads were aimed at women and showed black and white pictures of women from before the women's movement alongside colored pictures of a more independent modern woman. Kassian lays out for the reader the details of one ad after another until soon you find yourself thinking what were the women in that day thinking. Somehow they thought life would be easier and more rewarding if they had a high stress job, a long with having to cook, clean, and take care of the kids? Really???
As I pondered through all this I started to get angry and point fingers at the women of the 60's, when all of a sudden I felt a yank at my soul. Then the memories came back like a flood. I remembered how I too went after things that I thought I wanted because I thought they would give me more happiness, more pleasure, and more satisfaction. When someone would try and warn me by saying, "hey, don't go that way you'll get hurt." I would laugh at them and think they don't know what they are talking about, besides girl's just want to have fun! When they tried to tell me that the only way to find those things I was looking for was to follow Jesus, I'd feel a tugging at my soul for a moment, but then I would brush it off. I wanted to live for myself. What I didn't know then, I quickly discovered later. That those things I was running after would not bring me the happiness I was seeking but instead cause me more pain then I would have ever imagined. And today I'm still reaping the consequences of those choices. If only I would have listened to the few who tried to warn me, but then I can't look back. I can only look up fully into the face of Jesus my Redeemer.
I've truly come a long way! I'm not the same person I once was, nor am I yet who I want to be! That's why I'm so grateful for the mentors I have in in my life, for God's Word the Bible, and for books like this one. They challenge my thinking and correct the errors of it. Even if as in this case it was pride and a sense of self righteousness in an area. I guess what I'm saying is we are all human, we all are born with the sin nature that tugs at our souls to sin. Without Christ it's the only voice we hear and so we go after those things that do us more harm then good, as if pulled by a strong magnetic force. What is our only hope? To cry out to Jesus!!! To beg for His mercy and forgiveness, and to plead for His wisdom and understanding!!!
When I fell on my face and cried out to Jesus I confessed to Him that I had sinned against Him by disobeying His laws and by rejecting Him, and He completely forgave me. I have been walking with Him ever since. He didn't fix all my problems, as many of you know. What He did do is walk with me through every difficulty I faced as He still does today. My life is better, not because circumstances are better, though some are. My life is better because I know Jesus and that is all that I ever needed!!!He rocks my world like nobody else can!!!
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