Post by leilafarrahi on Aug 27, 2010 10:18:58 GMT -4
The final steps of any path are the hardest to make. Whether by choice or by guidance, one finds them self at that final moment. What lays before them - how the path changes - is always the same. It is a fork in the road. A symbol for the choice that one has to make. The personal sacrifice that everyone is permitted the option to make. It is only an option so that one can show their faith and their fealty to Him. Those who make their sacrifice and those who show their faith are rewarded with a beautiful and sacred path. Those who choose not to make their sacrifice, they are guided down a darker, more corrupted road. Those people may not have the opportunity to make that sacrifice again. These may be their final steps towards damnation or salvation. Their final steps may truly be the final steps towards Him or away from Him.
I find myself standing at this division right now. I stand there with Criss Cassidy who, while my enemy at Shockwave, is still my equal. Whatever he says and whatever he does is forgivable in His eyes so long as he follows that righteous path towards his own salvation. Unlike Criss - who believes that he walks this Earth to force people down a path of his choosing - I am not here to tell him where to walk. We are left to decide for ourselves which path we will take. Both paths will appear the same in the beginning. Both will have pain and difficulties and testing times. But they will end on that Holy path. On the path towards damnation, there will be no end. There will be no forgiveness or saving or salvation. There will continue to be the pain that has been chosen and the difficulties that have been embraced and the testing times that break the faith and the souls of even the strongest person.
Criss, I know which path you would lead us down. You would have all of those who listen to you follow blindly as you act the Shepard and lead us all to corruption and sin. But there is at least one person who sees you for who you truly are. You are the wolf, disguised as the Shepard, who carries a beating stick as if it were a crook. You would have us all make the ultimate sacrifice not to Allah, or to your God, but to you. I can see the desire to be worshiped in your eyes every time I look into them. You carry a stick to pacify those who would question you. You use your stick to heard and to beat the innocent who see through your disguise. And you would forever herd these follows - blinded by your words and hollow promises - down the path of sin without hesitation or looking back. There are some who cannot see through your disguise, for you are very skilled with your tongue.
However, I see through it. I see through your words and your image and your faith. I can see through it because I have been blessed by Him. I have not been blessed as you say you were: I am not here to lead people like sheep. I am here to walk along side them like a fellow person. Shoulder to shoulder, I walk alongside those you would say are above me and those below me. For the measurements are false, and we are all equal under His presence. In the end, none are better or worse than another. Everyone is judged not on what they have been recognized for or their possessions, but rather for the life they lived in full. Was their faith robust and true? Did they serve those around them rather than them self? Did they carries His name with pride? These are the ways we will be judged. I know I have digressed from these and sinned in my life. Every time I have, I have asked for repentance. I have admitted my wrongs when they have been presented before me and asked for forgiveness.
I never see Criss ask for His forgiveness. After attacking me and taking a hand to me in unwarranted aggression, he never sought to repent from his unjust ways. Even when He presented his sins to him. Walking towards this match at Shockwave with Criss, I have defeated him twice. He has shown Criss that his was are corrupted and are the actions of a sinner. Through his successive defeats, He has warned Criss that he had best change his ways and repent or suffer the consequences. For while Allah is forgiving of those seeking forgiveness, he is also just for those that require justice thrust upon them. Criss has not once sought forgiveness from those he sins against or from He who dispenses justice. Thus, through me, he will be shown - for the final time - that his ways are wrong and he has digressed from his Holy undertaking.
Through me, justice will be found. He will guide me, use me as his force on this Earth. For he has no need to grace us all with his presence. He guides us and directs us towards his plan. He has decided all of our fates. He has placed me beside Criss as He knew that Criss would fail to see the errors of his ways. It is my job then to deliver Criss in such a broken state to His feet so that he may be remade and re bodied to continue on the work that He has for him. It will be through my strikes and my blows to Criss that he realizes that he has sinned. Through the pain that I can inflict and through the blows that I may reign down upon him, Criss will be broken.
But it is not my fate that I make the decision for Criss to repent. Even through me, He will not make Criss change his ways. Criss must truly want to change. That is why the outcome of this match is no certainty. I may win or I may face defeat. My actions are my own, and I will carry within me my faith and my honor in a way that is becoming of me and Him. I will not fight like Criss and I will not fight like a sinner. I will fight like a true believer and I will strive to make the outcome of this match as joyous as it can be for me. But if it so happens that He requires Criss to be victorious in order to reveal to him the penance he must pay, then so be it. As I said, the judgment of every man and woman is not in the accolades they accumulate by rather how they lived their life. If I enter this match with a focus on honest and abiding wrestling, then victory or loss I will have made the faithful and proper decision.
And that will be my personal sacrifice. The sacrifice that I began with. The sacrifice that we all must make. For Criss, it is to sacrifice his pride and his deceptiveness in order to return to the flock that he tries to lead. For me, I must be prepared to sacrifice the celebration and the prestige that I seek. For as much as I may want them, these can be the triggers for sin. Hubris is the mortal sin that corrupts completely. For those that do not have to strive and struggle for their victories in life will succumb to it. Those that do fight the hard and weary fight, the rewards are sweeter and more luxurious. But they are fewer, for those people must make them their sacrifice. Criss has shown he is not prepared to do this. He has revealed that each loss tears him up, not with the desire to do more good but as the fuel for his further sins. I stand ready to sacrifice my match in order to save Criss. Criss stands ready to sacrifice me for the match.
Thus our match is simple. Which sacrifice will be made? Will Criss be victorious in beating me with his stick, muting me to the world so that he may continue his corruption of all that is good, and thus make me the sacrifice? Or will all or my for givings and my sacrifices reap my rewards in a victory over Criss? Criss is correct when he says that the truth will be found in the ring. However, unlike him, I do not know what the truth is. I do not pretend to know what will happen, or try to take on that unknowable knowledge that only He knows. I do not lay claim to knowing what the truth is, for how can anyone truly know what it is? How can you, Criss, know all that there is to know? If you could, you would know the outcome of this match, and you would know the ways to avert any defeat that you may face. You would know my thoughts and my actions, for the truth (you say) will be shown in the ring. My actions are in the ring, and they are supposed to be the truth for you. And yet, I know you don't know what I can do to you for you have been unable to defeat me since Test for the Best. You are blind to what the truth is. Truly blind.
And the more I hear you speak, Criss, the more I hear you make the judgment about those around you. You speak of a fallen world, and you speak of me as someone corrupted and undeserving of His blessing. Yet you yourself perform more acts of sin than I. You strike down with aggression, you succumb to your pride, you reveal your hubris, you disrespect His followers, you place yourself above those that are your peers, and you practice like a false prophet. You are the walking sinner that boys and girls are taught to avoid. Your actions do not corrupt you anymore: you are corrupted full. All that remains it for you to be broken. So come the fateful night this Sunday, I will break you. Through His will, I will place you in such pain and knock you with such force that you will seek His forgiveness. I will break you with the Shab and the Bedrood. You will taste the bitterness of defeat from those moves as you have before. I will break you down, piece by piece of you body. He will guide me as I take out your arms, then your legs, then put you in such pain that you have no choice but to beg not for my forgiveness but for His.
And He will listen, for He forgiving.
But He is just, so he might take a while to hear you.
I find myself standing at this division right now. I stand there with Criss Cassidy who, while my enemy at Shockwave, is still my equal. Whatever he says and whatever he does is forgivable in His eyes so long as he follows that righteous path towards his own salvation. Unlike Criss - who believes that he walks this Earth to force people down a path of his choosing - I am not here to tell him where to walk. We are left to decide for ourselves which path we will take. Both paths will appear the same in the beginning. Both will have pain and difficulties and testing times. But they will end on that Holy path. On the path towards damnation, there will be no end. There will be no forgiveness or saving or salvation. There will continue to be the pain that has been chosen and the difficulties that have been embraced and the testing times that break the faith and the souls of even the strongest person.
Criss, I know which path you would lead us down. You would have all of those who listen to you follow blindly as you act the Shepard and lead us all to corruption and sin. But there is at least one person who sees you for who you truly are. You are the wolf, disguised as the Shepard, who carries a beating stick as if it were a crook. You would have us all make the ultimate sacrifice not to Allah, or to your God, but to you. I can see the desire to be worshiped in your eyes every time I look into them. You carry a stick to pacify those who would question you. You use your stick to heard and to beat the innocent who see through your disguise. And you would forever herd these follows - blinded by your words and hollow promises - down the path of sin without hesitation or looking back. There are some who cannot see through your disguise, for you are very skilled with your tongue.
However, I see through it. I see through your words and your image and your faith. I can see through it because I have been blessed by Him. I have not been blessed as you say you were: I am not here to lead people like sheep. I am here to walk along side them like a fellow person. Shoulder to shoulder, I walk alongside those you would say are above me and those below me. For the measurements are false, and we are all equal under His presence. In the end, none are better or worse than another. Everyone is judged not on what they have been recognized for or their possessions, but rather for the life they lived in full. Was their faith robust and true? Did they serve those around them rather than them self? Did they carries His name with pride? These are the ways we will be judged. I know I have digressed from these and sinned in my life. Every time I have, I have asked for repentance. I have admitted my wrongs when they have been presented before me and asked for forgiveness.
I never see Criss ask for His forgiveness. After attacking me and taking a hand to me in unwarranted aggression, he never sought to repent from his unjust ways. Even when He presented his sins to him. Walking towards this match at Shockwave with Criss, I have defeated him twice. He has shown Criss that his was are corrupted and are the actions of a sinner. Through his successive defeats, He has warned Criss that he had best change his ways and repent or suffer the consequences. For while Allah is forgiving of those seeking forgiveness, he is also just for those that require justice thrust upon them. Criss has not once sought forgiveness from those he sins against or from He who dispenses justice. Thus, through me, he will be shown - for the final time - that his ways are wrong and he has digressed from his Holy undertaking.
Through me, justice will be found. He will guide me, use me as his force on this Earth. For he has no need to grace us all with his presence. He guides us and directs us towards his plan. He has decided all of our fates. He has placed me beside Criss as He knew that Criss would fail to see the errors of his ways. It is my job then to deliver Criss in such a broken state to His feet so that he may be remade and re bodied to continue on the work that He has for him. It will be through my strikes and my blows to Criss that he realizes that he has sinned. Through the pain that I can inflict and through the blows that I may reign down upon him, Criss will be broken.
But it is not my fate that I make the decision for Criss to repent. Even through me, He will not make Criss change his ways. Criss must truly want to change. That is why the outcome of this match is no certainty. I may win or I may face defeat. My actions are my own, and I will carry within me my faith and my honor in a way that is becoming of me and Him. I will not fight like Criss and I will not fight like a sinner. I will fight like a true believer and I will strive to make the outcome of this match as joyous as it can be for me. But if it so happens that He requires Criss to be victorious in order to reveal to him the penance he must pay, then so be it. As I said, the judgment of every man and woman is not in the accolades they accumulate by rather how they lived their life. If I enter this match with a focus on honest and abiding wrestling, then victory or loss I will have made the faithful and proper decision.
And that will be my personal sacrifice. The sacrifice that I began with. The sacrifice that we all must make. For Criss, it is to sacrifice his pride and his deceptiveness in order to return to the flock that he tries to lead. For me, I must be prepared to sacrifice the celebration and the prestige that I seek. For as much as I may want them, these can be the triggers for sin. Hubris is the mortal sin that corrupts completely. For those that do not have to strive and struggle for their victories in life will succumb to it. Those that do fight the hard and weary fight, the rewards are sweeter and more luxurious. But they are fewer, for those people must make them their sacrifice. Criss has shown he is not prepared to do this. He has revealed that each loss tears him up, not with the desire to do more good but as the fuel for his further sins. I stand ready to sacrifice my match in order to save Criss. Criss stands ready to sacrifice me for the match.
Thus our match is simple. Which sacrifice will be made? Will Criss be victorious in beating me with his stick, muting me to the world so that he may continue his corruption of all that is good, and thus make me the sacrifice? Or will all or my for givings and my sacrifices reap my rewards in a victory over Criss? Criss is correct when he says that the truth will be found in the ring. However, unlike him, I do not know what the truth is. I do not pretend to know what will happen, or try to take on that unknowable knowledge that only He knows. I do not lay claim to knowing what the truth is, for how can anyone truly know what it is? How can you, Criss, know all that there is to know? If you could, you would know the outcome of this match, and you would know the ways to avert any defeat that you may face. You would know my thoughts and my actions, for the truth (you say) will be shown in the ring. My actions are in the ring, and they are supposed to be the truth for you. And yet, I know you don't know what I can do to you for you have been unable to defeat me since Test for the Best. You are blind to what the truth is. Truly blind.
And the more I hear you speak, Criss, the more I hear you make the judgment about those around you. You speak of a fallen world, and you speak of me as someone corrupted and undeserving of His blessing. Yet you yourself perform more acts of sin than I. You strike down with aggression, you succumb to your pride, you reveal your hubris, you disrespect His followers, you place yourself above those that are your peers, and you practice like a false prophet. You are the walking sinner that boys and girls are taught to avoid. Your actions do not corrupt you anymore: you are corrupted full. All that remains it for you to be broken. So come the fateful night this Sunday, I will break you. Through His will, I will place you in such pain and knock you with such force that you will seek His forgiveness. I will break you with the Shab and the Bedrood. You will taste the bitterness of defeat from those moves as you have before. I will break you down, piece by piece of you body. He will guide me as I take out your arms, then your legs, then put you in such pain that you have no choice but to beg not for my forgiveness but for His.
And He will listen, for He forgiving.
But He is just, so he might take a while to hear you.
