CLEOEJACKSONIII.COM
  • My Home Page
  • My Life and Ministry
  • My Ongoing Thoughts
  • My Favorite Bible Verses
  • My Favorite Stories
  • My Favorite Jokes
  • My Favorite Quotations
  • My Favorite Web Links
  • My Contact Info
"Helping Others Communicate"

LIFE WITHOUT REGRETS

10/29/2018

 
As I did last time, I base my post today on a recent news story. This one tells of a certain woman who made a decision to cut herself off from her parents – literally!  It seems that Paulina Casillas Landeros, age 23, of Guadalajara, Mexico, had a falling out with her with her family - especially her parents - because they disapproved of her way of life.

They were not in favor of her tattoos and other extreme body modifications, such as a back corset – where piercings are created on either side of the spine, laced with ribbons and pulled tight.  Neither were they impressed by her split tongue.

As a result, in a fit of anger, she undertook a drastic act of revenge against her estranged family.  Desiring to "cut all unions from everything and everyone", she literally had her belly button surgically removed from her body out of spite.  Her purpose was to symbolize that she was no longer connected to them in any way.

Afterwards, she sent her detached belly button to her then-boyfriend as a "present".  After all, he had encouraged her in her rebellion against her parents.

However, three years have now passed and Landeros has since made up with her family.  She now regrets her decision, describing it as "reckless and impulsive".  In fact, she now realizes just how irreversible the decision to remove her belly button was.

She also now claims that "the professional gave me very bad advice on how to take care of the trauma so it got infected." According to Landeros, "I was suffering.  I spent days in bed as if I were quarantined.  I couldn’t stretch, push, stand up or laugh.  It gradually healed itself but not 100 percent – it will never close entirely."

Irrespective of the pain involved, Landeros says she knew exactly what she wanted to do with her belly button after it was removed. She decided to turn it into a sort of token of love for her then-boyfriend, Daniel Ramirez.


Now, however, she has since lost both a boyfriend and a belly button!  And she lives with regrets each and every day for the rash and foolish way in which she behaved.  "I do regret it when I put myself in my mum’s position, it must have been devastating for her, she was so sad."

As I read this, I could not help but think about the first few chapters of the Bible.  Genesis chapters 1 and 2 recount how God created the world and all that is in it.  It also recounts how men and women were created at the very last as the crowning glory of all God's creative work.

Unique among God’s creation in that they bore the Image of God, Adam and Eve were placed in a bountiful garden called Eden and allowed to live an idyllic life.  God’s only requirement was that they obey His words to them.

Nonetheless, they chafed under His word, and in chapter 3, were enticed by the Devil in the guise of a serpent.  As a result, they rebelled against their Creator, permanently disfiguring their Divine image with the blemish of sin in the process. 

By chapter 4, of course, they had already realized their mistake. But the damage had been done.  And the enamoring and enticement of the evil one was to fill them with regret ever thereafter.
 
Of course, Adam and Eve’s story is everyone’s story.  As such, it is my story; and it is your story.  As the Old Testament prophet Isaiah puts it (chapter 53, verse 6), "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way…"  And just like Adam and Eve, we all bear the scars of our willful rejection of our Creator and His word.


How sad would be our plight if this is where the Biblical story ended.  But, praise God, it is not.  There is more to the story – much more. The rest of the story is that God sent His Son to fix what we could not fix.  Jesus Christ, the Divine Physician, redeemed us in our broken state by giving His life as an atonement for our sins. 

Through Christ, therefore, the Bible tells us that we are a whole new creation!  All that sin has marred and disfigured has been made whole again by Jesus Christ!  And because of this, we can live life without regrets!  As the Apostle Paul puts it (2 Corinthians 5:17-18): "17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ…"

And that, my friend, is reason enough to live life without regrets!

NEWS STORY SOURCE: https://www.foxnews.com/health/woman-regrets-removing-belly-button-sending-it-to-boyfriend.
SCRIPTURAL SOURCES: 
https://biblehub.com/isaiah/53-6.htm and https://biblehub.com/niv/2_corinthians/5.htm.



Comments are closed.

    Cleo E. Jackson, III

    Occasionally I will add
    a few thoughts to my blog. If you find them inspirational, I will be
    honored.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010

    Categories

    All