Unable to See

I wrote yesterday about the need to picture your preferred future to be able to attain it. What do you do if you can't imagine something because you've never experienced anything similar to it? What do you do when your life circumstances haven't allowed you to see anything beyond your present condition? I have seen people in our community here in Georgia, in my hometown of Daytona Beach, and on the mission field in Arizona who are unable to picture a preferred future because they don't believe that anything else exists beyond their present life.

How do you get someone to hope for something better when they don't understand the concept? When you've always been saturated in hopelessness and futility you tend to believe that's all there is.

How can you convince someone to trust you when they have never been able to trust anyone in authority in their life? When the people that are closest to you are constantly abandoning you for their own gratification it makes it impossible to believe anyone who attempts to help you.

How do you get someone to accept unconditional love when that concept is completely foreign to them? When people in your life only reward you for what you do for them you tend to believe that you have to earn each person's devotion.

How do we convince people that they can break free from generational cycles and improve their standing when they have never been rewarded for good decisions? When you are constantly being berated and insulted, you start to believe these lies and refuse to rise above your circumstances.

These are the people who desperately need a vision of something greater and persistent investment from people who are able to see a better future. If we aren't willing to wade into the difficult mess of these firmly held falsehoods we are condemning people to a drowning life of desperation while refusing to throw them a life preserver.