Ingrown Eyeballs

Abide with ME

Ingrown Eyeballs

by Rocky Fleming

“I must learn that the purpose of my life belongs to God, not me. God is using me from His great personal perspective, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him. I should never say, 'Lord, this causes me such heartache.' To talk that way makes me a stumbling block. When I stop telling God what I want, He can freely work His will in me without any hindrance. He can crush me, exalt me, or do anything else He chooses. He simply asks me to have absolute faith in Him and His goodness. Self-pity is of the devil, and if I wallow in it I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world. Doing this creates for me my own cozy 'world within the world,' and God will not be allowed to move me from it because of my fear of being 'frost-bitten.”' Oswald Chambers - My Umost for His Highest

Growing up as a “young-un” in the South gave me an opportunity to hear and experience some “humdinger” expressions. For example, there is a real good one called, “fixin to.” This is a phrase many southerners use frequently. I know I do, while mistakenly forgetting how it can confuse the listener if he or she doesn't know what it means. This is especially true if this person is not from the South. These “foreigners” hear the phrase and often laugh, and some even make fun of the one who spoke the word, while mistakenly thinking that he or she is ignorant. We understand we must be patient with an uninformed person, but we still don't like, “being made fun of.” When it happens to me, I explain that the term is used to introduce an event about to take place, such as, I am “fixin to go to the grocery store.” As a way to hammer home this southern colloquialism to the unenlightened one to whom I am talking, I ask the person if he knows the past participle of “fixin to,” which he generally does not. I tell him the past participle of“fixin to” is, “done done it.” Now I don't know if they really get it, but I notice it makes them wonder if they need to change how they talk. But I get the problem! I understand, being a writer born and raised in the South, that before one could translate my books into Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin, they had to first translate them into English. This doesn't make me mad, “cause we-uns” in the South understand the great disadvantage most people have with their language because they were not raised in the South, and we need to be patient with them. But also know this: We feel that all you other people speak with a dialect, not us. “Ingrown eyeballs”could also be one of those expressions that says a lot, if you will think about it. It means to be selfish, self-centered, self-loving, self-serving, self-seeking. Narcissistic is a word people from the South do not use, for we can't pronounce it, and selfish sounds better. Either way, wherever you were raised on this earth, all of these synonyms have the same origin. They were inspired by the evil one himself, for they are his perspective that he tries to get us to adopt. Think about it. Didn't Satan see himself as equal with God and wanted to overthrow Him? Wasn't this inspired because of his pride? Wasn't it his self-pity that made him act out against God? Can you see why Oswald Chambers would declare: “Self-pity is of the devil”? Now think about this: Who do you want to believe? Do you want to believe the father of lies and the accuser of God, or do you want to believe God Who has declared to you in His word that all things work for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose? Self-pity is a dangerous thought process that our enemy convinces us to have, and it generally comes back to injure us and those we love in some way. When we have a temptation to fall into self-pity, we had better suit up and battle this thought coming at us, for it leads to misery. It is dangerous, and that is why Chambers had further thoughts on it: "If we give way to self-pity and indulge in the luxury of misery, we remove God's riches from our lives and hinder others from entering into His provision. No sin is worse than self-pity, because it removes God from the throne of our lives, replacing Him with our own self-interests. It causes us to open our mouths only to complain, and we simply become spiritual sponges--always absorbing, never giving, and never being satisfied. And, there is nothing lovely or generous about our lives. "~Oswald Chambers Men, all I can say is: Don't go there with self-pity! Do not swallow the lie that leads you to this place! It will lead to a bitter life, and destroy the good things that God will lead you to if you will trust Him. Like they say in the South: “Satan will clean your plow (beat you up) if you let him.” But you can clean his plow by reminding him, and yourself, that you are a man of God, and you will not take his bait. To the King's honor: Rocky TO DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THIS DEVOTIONAL, CLICK HERE