Compromise: A settlement of differences in which each side makes concessions.
The result of such a settlement.
Compromises. We make them every single day as we work together to make life easier on everyone. Today, I want to blog about compromises that we should never make because they erode our belief system.
Compromise when talking about your belief system becomes a contagious disease that will ultimately destroy who you are or who you believe yourself to be. One compromise will lead to another and another and pretty soon you will look nothing like you used to. I know most people think it won’t happen to them but it always does when we decide to take this road.
So why do we do it? Why do we compromise our belief system? There are two reasons. One, is that we never really believed that our belief system was valid in the first place. We talked the talk but could not ultimately walk the walk. We thought we believed it but when it came right down to it, the act was more important than the substance of the presupposition.
The second is that we want the person with whom we are compromising, in an unhealthy obsessive way that ends up throwing our own self to the wolves to be devoured. It isn’t a healthy love that causes us to compromise our beliefs, it’s based on a low opinion of ourselves and a desperation and manipulation. Healthy love would never ask you to compromise your belief nor would you want to.
Don’t compromise your belief system. You are worth so much more than you give yourself credit for. And while we are here, let’s talk about what I mean when I blog statements like don’t compromise. First off, I don’t mean compromising on the color of the couch we are going to buy together once we are married. I am not talking about simple everyday things like learning to live with the fact that your husband likes to sleep with the light on and you like it off. I mean things like followers of Christ who marry unbelievers with the hope that they will attend church one day. I mean allowing someone to mistreat you because you love them, or they love you. I mean dating a married man who says he is miserable and getting a divorce.
Notice that I am writing about things that will alter who you are forever and cause you to sneak around and live in shame and not openly live your life out loud. If you have to keep a part of your life a secret then you are compromising your beliefs. The reason that this is so important is that while the compromise is happening, we lie to ourselves and say, “Okay, I’ll compromise on this one thing but I won’t go any further.” The fact is that we will go further and we do because compromise is a slippery slope. Once we swallow down the bitter pill of the first compromise, the other pills go down a little easier and don’t taste as bad. Pretty soon our compromises have taken us to places we would never have gone and we look nothing like what we and God intended.
Ask yourself a very important question at this point in your reading. Have you compromised your belief system? If so, let me ask you another question. Did the person you compromised for, also compromise their belief system? I would venture to bet dollars to donuts that they did NOT. Remember a compromise is a settlement of differences in which each side makes concessions. I would bet that you compromised on the HOPE that they would hold their end of the bargain but believe me, I’ve lived long enough to know I am making a safe bet. They didn’t hold their end of the bargain and never intended to. You were played. Oh, that is so harsh to say but I say it because only truth will set you free.
So that being said, what will you do now? Will go back and get your beliefs back? Or will you stubbornly allow the initial compromise to take you out? You are so worthy of going back and taking inventory and getting your life back! It’s okay to take a positive step forward to look in the mirror and say, “I need a do-over. This isn’t working for me. This has cost me too much.” Compromise, it’s an insidious contagious fungus that will eat up everything in its path. Don’t allow it to devour you.
Pastor Susan 