Redemption (by the Disciple)

Redemption.

Ok, so, um. It happened?! The Arizona Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl. The Arizona Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl.

Ladies and gentlemen, as an optimist and positive person at most times, I can honestly tell you that I never thought that I would have saw the day that this would happen.

I started this blog during a rough time in my life. It was a time of loneliness and search. It was created as a distraction by my closest friends to get me to write again.

Red Nation 2009 was even mis-titled as the year was obviously 2008. From the beginning it was just a method to sound off on my personal life translated through the guise of the Cardinals.

In many ways, nothing has changed in the thought that I still just sit here and rant about life and the Cardinals. But now a breakthrough has happened. The Cardinals have won the NFC and are now able to move onto the Super Bowl.

Another breakthrough has happened as I am happy again. Imagine that. So, the Cardinals win the NFC and I find happiness again.

Two things that at one point seemed completely unattainable are now a reality.

I can not tell you exactly what happened to both of these entities that have caused them to find themselves.

Was it the endless amount of high draft picks that allowed the Cardinals to finally find some talent?

Was it the luck of a schedule that allowed them to play the weakest of opponents every week including in the play-offs?

Or, was it the fact that the Cardinals actually earned some redemption?

Was it the fact that after decades of being the worst team in the history of sport, they were finally able to breakthrough over all of the doubts and conquer?

It was their redemption.

Redemption is interesting as it is always attained after the worst struggle. Redemption is something that is never received as a gift or anything like that. It is something that is understood and embraced as the ending of a long journey.

This is true as the feeling that you get when you earn that redemption is something completely foreign to you at the beginning of your trek.

You change as a human being; you become a different person and the product at the end of the struggle is someone much stronger and different than at the beginning.

You change your understanding on values and ethics. You change everything that you hold true to yourself as it is all challenged. Every innocent thought that you may have ever had; or anything that you understood as being pure is gone.

It’s not gone for good nor do you become this old hag that hates everything you encounter. But the innocence of life is gone. It is gone and the struggle looks to be never ending, until you get that moment of redemption.

It’s not redemption from anyone else or the praise of false profits. But rather, the redemption is inside of you. The feeling that fills your body like Love does when it takes over. The beautiful thing about Love and redemption is that they both can not be forced. You cannot force yourself into loving someone.

You can not force yourself into feeling like you have conquered everything. There is too much pressure there for everything to work out at that point.

Redemption doesn’t come to you with fireworks or on a silver platter. Rather, it arrives subtly. You see it in the most mundane of things and it causes you the most happiness.

You cannot force yourself into a spark of emotion. No matter how obvious it appears to be logically, emotions are illogical. You cannot try and feel when there is nothing there to feel.

How can you be redeemed; when you don’t even trust yourself?

Love yourself. Trust yourself.

Understand that every journey has a moment of redemption. The Cardinals journey has spanned over 60 years and that moment is just arriving.

Do not become impatient and force anything. Don’t allow your mind to create an archetype of an emotion that you are supposed to like.

Don’t give in to the pressure and be true to yourself. Listen to no-one except the voice in your head and the movement of your heart.

Redeem yourself today!

Love ya guys and we shall talk again real soon.