SLIDER

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Suck It Up, Buttercup...



To all the people with problems, who have ever had a problem, who ever will have a problem:
Have you (or will you) let your bump in the road become your fork in the road?

Ideally I would love to be the one to tell you "Suck it up, buttercup." 
  I would love to tell you how I overcame each trial and temptation in the course of my life with faith and victory in 2-4 weeks and here is how I did it. I would love to give you a 5 step strategy of how to not let junk and sin and hard circumstances hold you back from destiny.

Unfortunately, it's only by trial and error that I've learned my lesson. I've learned not to let the bumps in my road of life ultimately become my fork in the road of life. Not to say that I never have. Because at times I have willingly let my own problems, circumstances & my own selfish actions suddenly take me on a path I had never intended. The path that led me further away from God. And further away from my destiny in God. I let my mistakes and hard times alter my course.

We all have done it. We all do it.

But at some point we have to learn. No one is exempt from problems. No one is exempt from temptation. No one is exempt from circumstances and a hard life now and then. And at some point we have  to rise above the status quo for what is acceptable when someone is going through a hard time. We have to stop playing the excuse game for ourselves by allowing *our screw up* or *our problem* to lead us down a permanent path of sin or a road of mediocrity.

Pick yourself up, friend... and move on to greater depths of purpose. Not because you earned it by screwing up. But instead because in that trial or error, you learned something. And the biggest thing you learned was to not let your problem suck you into a mediocre lifestyle, once again.  And because of that trial or error that you didn't compromise over, you now have something to teach someone else.
About strength.
About integrity.
About humility.

We have to stop pretending we are on a life long diet and every time we eat a candy bar, we simply shrug our shoulders and give up. That's not how life is supposed to work. That's not how our Christianity is supposed to work.

I watched the Son of God movie this past weekend and the one of the things that struck me the most was that is was taken from view point and gospel of John, in which at the end he stated, that every disciple with the exception of him had died for the cause of Christ. And he (John) was exiled. Their comfort wasn't more important to them than the message of the Gospel. They took it as far as they could go, despite the persecution they faced. Despite the death sentence they faced.

How convicting! That we can't even see past our own problems sometimes. We can't even see past our failures to see the forgiveness and grace of God. So, instead we let ourselves sit in defeat. We let ourselves swim in the pool of complacency, doing nothing...

Because, well, what's the point now, right? 
We already screwed things up. Or life already screwed us up.

Not true. You think the disciples didn't want to give up? You think Peter didn't feel guilty and ashamed after denying Jesus 3 times immediately following his promise to Jesus face that he wouldn't?  But did he wallow in it? Or did he move on to something greater?
I got news for you, friend. He moved on to accomplish great things...

There does come a point where we have to stop making excuses every time some little (or big) problem meets us on our road of life. There comes a point where we have to suck it up. Stop letting a difficult season defeat your destiny. You're not the only one with problems. Rise above them. Rise above the typical and the status quo. Refuse to let yourself accept that it's ok to walk away from God and your destiny just because you have been through a hard time.



It's not ok.
Somebody has to tell you.
It's not ok to sin.
It's not ok to sulk.
It's not ok to turn away from Jesus, who gave his life for YOU, just because....
Because you hit a rough spot.
We all have.  And it never has been okay.

I've been in that place. That place where I gave up on my purpose, gave up on God, gave up on joy because I let a hard time win me, instead of the compassionate heart of God win me.

And I finally decided... It's not ok to do what everyone else does. It's not ok to sit in sin. It's not ok to throw a pity party. Maybe everyone deems it acceptable to 'walk away' for a short period...or a long period, because you were 'going through a rough spot.' But for me, it's not acceptable to turn my back on the one who gave his life for me.

It's not okay for me to shrug your shoulders and walk away from Him.
And it shouldn't be ok for you.


4 comments:

Alesha said...

Amen!!! Thank you for saying this! I've been trying to put these thoughts into words for awhile and you captured it perfectly.
Alesha <3

The Girl who Loved to Write said...

This is so incredibly good.

Joy Foucault said...

Beautifully written. This is so perfectly said. We do have a choice to carry on the bump and use it as an excuse to do whatever we want. Thanks for the heart check.

No(dot dot)el said...

I have a favorite saying that correlates with this perfectly, "This is NOT the hill to die on" meaning there will be all kinds of hills in this life, but we can't stop on every one and plan out our funeral. Good stuff Julie. Thank you.

 
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