CAPTIVATING NETS OF THE WORLD

It was in the year 1993, March 12^th when a few college girls had planned a movie at the Satyam Theatre at Century Bazaar, Mumbai. This was a secret plan of theirs without the knowledge of their parents. To their bad luck, when after the movie they were waiting at the bus stop opposite Century Bazaar to go back home, the world of their parents got shaken up as the place where they were standing got blown up with RDX explosives. This was the worst ever terror attack faced by this city.

A friend of theirs had however not agreed to their plan and stayed back because she had felt it not right to go without informing her parents like they had decided to do. Till to date she thanks herself for the decision she had taken 25 years back because today unlike her friends she is alive to talk about it.

This temptation of lying had a sad ending. But don’t we as human beings often fall prey to temptations of lying and deceiving others, little knowing that the real battle is inside of us? We very well know what’s right and wrong and yet get pulled into the erroneous because of luring enticements.

 I recently came across a story about a little girl who gives us a very unique and invaluable perspective of living life beautifully. She expresses her everyday struggles and happenings in prayer to God. Though at the surface, all her struggles appear very naive and charming, they mimic the struggles every adult faces on a day to day basis. Like arresting nets, attractions imprison us in them forever. To keep ourselves safe then, we too like the little girl need to be more prayerful and have more conversations with God and wait on Him to cover us with His peace.

At one point, she talks to God telling Him how angry she is at her sister. She puts all the blame on her sister as she complains about her and expresses her desire for revenge. As the conversation grows, she realizes that she has been very petty to fight over silly things and begins to understand that she needs to be tougher, kinder and more uncomplaining to become a better person.

In the adult world too, people suffer from similar troubles. Holding on to bitterness and being revengeful or nursing a grudge against someone who has hurt us comes easily to adults. Hitting back or being bitter comes as largely natural to most people. Such small feelings become a big struggle for many. Petite unpleasant situations outside don’t take time to become big internal struggles. But the story tells us to take a correct approach to problem solving.  The little girl gradually decides to take no quick and rash decision as a backlash. Instead, she talks to God and waits to hear Him talk back to her. She patiently stays peaceful till His peace cleanses her negative emotions.

This story encourages us to have a realistic dialogue with God and not get weighed down in misery in various captivating nets of the world. As humans, we face conflicts and do things which we later feel sorry about; these could vary from person to person. For a college student it could be to attend class or bunk; for a young woman who has made the decision to lose weight, it would be whether to eat an extra piece of cake or leave it untouched; or it could be the keeping up with fashion; and deliberately wearing something in trend but unsuitable and uncomfortable. It could also be a longing to belong to a group for the desire to be accepted by people who appear to be bold, attractive and forceful. That’s obviously a clearly wrong choice of companionship and a very dangerous up gradation indeed!

These are then the times, where like the little girl in the story, we need to be more prayerful and have conversations with God.

“Watch with me and pray lest the Tempter overpower you. For though the spirit is willing enough, the body is weak.” Mark 14:38

picture credits: Google