I Pledge Allegiance

I read in the news this week about a former sports star, Ryan Leaf, who has been brought up on drug charges, again. You may remember him from his college days at Washington State, he was a fantastic quarterback there and was drafted into the NFL. Things didn't work out so well for him there and he only lasted a couple of years. I asked myself how a person, who was seemingly on top of the world, make such a slide downhill?

I believe it has to do with where their allegiance lies. Anyone remember what allegiance is? I looked it up and, according to Websters, it is the tie which binds the subject to his Sovereign. Which brings up the question, what is a sovereign? Websters again defines this as a supreme lord or ruler.

We all have a sovereign in our lives to whom we are fiercely loyal, and to which sovereign we pledge our loyalty will make all the difference as to where we end up in life. There are four basic sovereigns to which we can pledge our allegiance. These are self, others, evil and good.

If one is loyal to oneself and puts his heart and soul into that loyalty, he will be rewarded and sometimes greatly. But when he attains the reward he will wonder why it isn't enough. With loyalty to self, fulfillment can never be reached.

Loyalty to others plays out like this. You work hard, doing what others say will make you great and you still can never quite seem to measure up. The ones you were trying to impress don't really care and aren't all that impressed.

If ones allegiance is to evil you will get what you want but it will be in a way in which you don't want it, and you lose your soul in the process.

The last and best allegiance is to good or God. If your allegiance lies here, as has every truly great persons', you will be able to do great, even unexpected things. You will have huge impact in the world, changing it for the better, and you will be truly happy and fulfilled.

I have known several people, some good friends even, whose allegiance wasn't in the right place. There have been times in my life when my allegiance wasn't right and it is amazing how empty life seemed. So take a minute and evaluate where you are and compare with where you should be, it will make all the difference.