Self-pity our greatest enemy
THE EDITOR: Have you ever noticed in times of misfortune how we tend to exaggerate our sense of self-worth which is exacerbated by feeling sorry for ourselves? "Why is God doing this to me?" Right there we encounter our greatest enemies on the road to happiness. How do we overcome these two deadly opponents? Well, I think God shows us by introducing those two terrifying and magnificent creatures in the Book of Job. They are Behemoth the Hippopotamus and Leviathan, the crocodile. These are God’s prizefighters, his Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali, his Soca Warriors! We are encouraged to adopt their attributes. First, they are both versatile animals, equally at home on land and in water. Similarly, as Job says in the prologue, we must accept both "good and bad" from the hand of God. The hippo is an herbivorous mammal. We are to be non-violent yet resourceful — "lotus eaters." We must be resilient, able to absorb punishment and all that the enemy can throw at us. We defeat our self-importance with these tactics. The croc is a carnivorous reptile. We must be cunning fighters, ready to take on all-comers. We must not be passive but rather warn the devil’s agents that to tangle with us will bring on "the fight of their lives." We must not allow ourselves to become victims but must have the valiant spirit of a soldier or warrior. Our self-pity capitulates under such an attitude. BRIAN NORIEGA D’Abadie
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"Self-pity our greatest enemy"