I’m Ticked! Part 1
Posted on April 11, 2007 - Filed Under Strategy Groups, general |
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how angry I am that, as men, we’ve believed the lies that tell us that bad marriages, bad kids, bad relationships, bad jobs, bad breaks, a bad life….is somehow “just the way life is”. “That’s just life” you say? We’ve all said it or heard it said far too many times. We always say it as if to blame the “game of life” for our bad circumstances. Tough times are a part of life, but they do not have to define your life! Excuse me if you think we’re supposed to live our lives allowing our tough times to dictate our attitudes, actions, and reactions. Oh, it’s not going to be easy, but if you think I’m going to roll over and accept the fact that “life just sucks and then you die”, then you’ve got another few paragraphs to go my friends.
I don’t know about you, but I’m sick to death of the idea that we have to accept “the way it is” and that we somehow need to “shut up and deal with it”! Because that’s what real men are supposed to do, right? Shut up and deal with it! As far as I’m concerned, if that’s true, then all of the promises in the entire Bible are meaningless…not to mention my faith in the creator of the universe along with the Son He sent to give us everlasting life! Not “hell” on earth…not even “life” on earth, but an “abundant life”…on earth…and then forever! Many of us have accepted the “abundant” life thing as something reserved for the sweet by and by. Au contraire, mes amis!
If you have any doubt, you should study it and digest it for yourself. Don’t take my word for it. The Bible clearly says that “apart from God, you can do nothing”. What does “nothing” mean? I’m convinced that the value of what I can do on my own, in my own strength, by myself, is minimal compared to what God can do in and through me! Oh, you can do a few things with all the strength you can muster, but you have to know how little you bring to the table by yourself! If you haven’t figured that out yet, trust me…your time is coming. Until we get that…really get that…should it be any surprise that every direction we turn reveals so little success? Rather than experiencing the “abundant” life, we’ll find ourselves living and accepting an abundance of life’s failures!
When we truly strive to search for and connect with God, we always find the peace, satisfaction, fulfillment, and success we are so desperately searching for. Interestingly, when I feel the closest to God, I often times find that fulfillment and success don’t always mean what I thought they did. When we “seek Him first”, with all our heart, He promises that we will find the successful life that we dream about and long for! That’s what He meant when He said, “…whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” In other words…if you lose…you win! Interesting prerequisite to blessing and success! By the way…losing…in this sense…does not imply that you must lead a life of boring misery and defeat! Just the opposite! Later in the same passage of scripture, the Bible says that “…with God, all things are possible”! All things!! When “all things are possible”…success, prosperity, and blessing becomes the norm, not the occasional “lucky” accident! And later still, the Bible says that “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me”. The promise of enduring strength that carries us through our heartaches and troubles to ultimate and constant victory in life was not carved out just for Paul’s personal temporary use. It’s yours…and mine…for now and forevermore!
Somebody obviously stole the phrase “can do” from God! God made that up!! Not some bumper sticker genius or some liberal Ivy league grad that’s probably whining right now about how God doesn’t even exist so that he can somehow justify his miserable existence! Fortunately, liberal Ivy league grads have a choice. They don’t have to spend their life whining and miserable while denying the truth. And neither do you!
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