"I did what you won't do," my business coach declared from stage. It seemed like he was talking directly to me.
"Ugh," I rotate in my seat. How many times have I made excuses that it is too hard, or that I am just too busy? Too many to count.
"How old do you have to get before you stop blaming your past for your current failures? You were abused? You were rejected? You were a victim? Get over it. You were made for far more than your misfortunes." How many times do you blame your past for your current rut? Your past existed. There is no sense in pretending it didn't. But there comes a time when you need to realize your future is more important than your past. There comes a time when you have to stop acting as if your misfortunes are the defining title of your life. I have a past too, everyone does. But at the end of the day, it isn't the past that will define you, it is the way you respond to the past.
I have honestly written a blog similar to this, but I have been re-inspired to focus back on the truthful subject. In all reality, there are way too many people who will forever be controlled by their hurtful past, because they are unwilling to do the work to overcome it. It is painful, it will not be easy, but allowing growth in a dead area of your life will push you far past that of an ordinary failure or success. There is no way to see yourself for who you were made to be until you address the pain. It will be there, anchoring you to the ground until you release it. But only you can untie that knot and release yourself.
When I was growing up, us kids would get ourselves into various difficulties. We would get caught in something, our hair matted beyond understanding, or cords in some irreversible mess. In our childhood ways, we would run to our mommy, compassionately named the Knot Doctor, to help ease the mess. She would patiently sit and detangle the mess and then we would be on our way again. We need that Knot Doctor, and let me tell you, it isn't going to be another person on this planet. Only God can truly detangle the mess life made. But you have to go to him. He will only fix it if you ask. You have to ask, because your future starts now.
"Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 3:13-14
This week, I am happy to say, has been a week of blessing. There is nothing quite like blessing to remind you of what an excitement for life looks like. It is amazing how busy we can get with our head down, grinding away, that we forget how beautiful the trees, birds, and sky are.
And what is the best gift worthy of lifting your head for is? Easter. No, not the bunny and colored eggs (however cute those traditions are), but the pure unadulterated gift from the son of God, himself: life. And what a beautiful gift that is. A gift, that unlike most, is not earned, but freely given.
Yes, I do fully understand the market will be flooded with well-meaning bloggers speaking of the value of Jesus' gift. Regardless of this, my week of blessing will be fittingly incomplete without the mention of "The Christian Super Bowl" as our pastor so fondly calls it.
But anyways, one of the greatest lessons I have learned is that Christ's gift really was one of the only free gifts in life. The rest take hard work and a lot of grind, but the reward at the end is so bright and beautiful that it makes all the hard work seemingly incomparable. There is a sort of parable that comes to mind. The Chinese bamboo tree doesn't break ground for four years after it is planted and then on the fifth year it grows 90 feet in 5 weeks. Thus is the intricate story of success. The beginning seems bleak and requires a certain multitude of faith in order to see its value. Then, all of a sudden, after faith exceeds possibility, the impossible takes shape. And what a beautiful thing that impossibility becomes.
I will be honest, this week I was laying in bed staring at the ceiling, thinking about why in the world faith has to exist. Why can't God just reveal himself and then everyone could just sit in his glory? Because God wants more for us. He wants more for us than a mediocre acceptance of truth. He wants us to be challenged and stand tough. One of the best blessings he could ever bestow is truth after a lifetime of living by faith alone. Only then will we grow to be all He longs for us to be. Only then will we fulfill our destiny.
And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. Matthew 21:21
