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As I type this article, I’m reminded of how much I love my MacBook Pro. It’s the greatest computer on the planet. It does have a few things in common with the inferior Windows PC: they both have a keyboard.
One button in particular caught my attention yesterday. “ESC” or the “escape” button. Since I work on a Mac, I have to use it around 90% less than my PC counterparts. But, none the less, it still offered me a little bit of comfort for some strange reason. I know it’s there just in case I get into something that I need immediate “escape” from on my computer.
Wouldn’t it be great if life came with an “escape” button? What a relief to know that if we got ourselves into something, we could just hit a button and we could get out of it and even start over as if nothing ever happened?
Through many difficult and painful experiences, I know all too well that life doesn’t work that way. I got myself into some real pickles that I may have thought at one time were just accidents. But just like when my Mac seems to have “screwed itself up” and I want to say it’s my computers fault, we don’t get where we are in life on accident either. Sometimes, things may “happen” to us because of our ignorance or that are honestly beyond our immediate control. But most of the time, things “happen” because of our choices and they do what choices do: they direct us to where we are today. It’s more than just geography, unforeseen circumstances, lucky breaks or an “act of God” that forces it’s influence on us and that may be beyond our control. I’m talking about our heart and our character. They have the greatest influence in us. They direct our responses to the forces around us and are within our ability to choose.
No matter the resulting consequences, whether positive or negative in our estimation, our present reality is a direct result of living what we believe. What we do is what we really believe, not what we think or say we believe. There’s no “escape” from seeing the results of our beliefs being realized right in front of us – our integrity.
