The Magical Voice of Scripture – 1 Corinthians 11:28
John C. Kimbrough
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If you are taking the time to read this, you may have realized some things about yourself and your life.

You may have realized that you want to seek out a way to live that will enrich your understanding of your life experience and assist you in living in a more wise and calm manner.

Maybe you have already found a way and you are involved in reading and study in order to further your knowledge of it and ability and strength in practicing it.

Perhaps you feel like you are under a lot of stress or anxiety and need to find a way to let go of it.

It could be that you are overwhelmed by some experience where you have been verbally, emotionally, physically or sexually abused and you need to heal yourself from that.

Has a marriage or relationship marked by deceit and betrayal left you mentally and physically exhausted, confused and hurt?

Could it be that a habit has become an obsession and addiction that you do not know how to deal with or end?

In fact, all of these experiences that you may have experienced are quite common to mankind, in the last 30 years and in the last 3000 years.

So, what can be done to bring about a change that will be of benefit to you?

Increased anger, frustration and resentment to the person or experience or the world and others as a whole will probably just continue to hurt and confuse you more.

You will lose sight of your gifts and strengths and have the ability to build on them in joyful and meaningful ways compromised.

Yes, the world, others and life can be unfair to you, me, us.

Anytime we are under these kind of feelings and pressures, we will have the most success in getting to a new place when we make an examination of ourselves.

Are or have our expectations been unrealistic?

Are we putting too much pressure on ourselves?

Are we reacting to others and the world in fear and anxiety instead of relating and acting to them with calmness and insight?

Are we engaging in some mental and physical habit that is making things more difficult for us, so that we do not have the strength or wisdom to see things with clarity and act on that clarity in a way that will make things better.

Perhaps there is something that we can not accept in another, knowing that it has serious implications on ourselves.

It could be any number of things.

It can seem like an extra and unfair burden to think that we are the one who needs to do the work and put forth the effort when it was someone else who did something to us.

That seems like a fair and logical thought and feeling to have.

But in many respects, we do, unfortunately, have no choice in this.

We have to work in order to heal the damage done to us, or see how we have been that has led or contributed to a stressful or painful experience and allowed it to develop.

Maybe we need to get away from a person, a marriage, a relationship as we have realized that he or she does not have the same attitudes towards the world, others and the relationship as we do.

This is quite common and we can only hope and work to an end that is marked by a degree of mutual respect and understanding.

We know that that in itself may not be attainable for many.

But your life will go on, for years and years and years, and we can not allow these experiences to scar us to the extent that we can not trust again, love again and grow more in the experience of life.

We can not allow ourselves to become bitter or come back to feelings of self–pity or self–hatred.

Our thoughts and emotions are something that can be our greatest enemy.

We must not let them overpower us do that we are unable to still see the gifts in ourselves and others and make an effort to reach our greatest potential.

There are ways to get there.

Therapies, Yoga, mediation, tai chi, religion, stillness, silence, better food, and healthier habits and attitudes are some of them.

All they have to be is examined as we examine ourselves more closely.

1 Corinthians 11:28 – “A man should examine himself”

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