Struggle Doesn’t Equal Failure
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The alarm goes off and you manage to crack open an eyelid far enough to peer at the glaringly bright display of your phone just long enough to be sure that you hit the snooze button. ย And within seconds your eyelid jams shut, as you quickly slip back to sleep for another nine minutes, just forย the process toย be started all over again.
The snooze button is probably one of the most telling inventions of humankind. ย It was designed solely to delay the start of another day; as if laying there, eyes jammed shut, curled up like a human-burrito is going to keep the world from spinning.
But we all do it, even those perky morning people. ย There are just some things in life that we’d rather put off, delay a little longer and say “snooze” to.
Sometimes those things are the present circumstances of our life.
Life is sometimes a struggle. ย Some days more than others. ย There are circumstances that are so far beyond our control that make the process of getting out of bed even harder than the split-second decision to hit snooze one more time.
And in those circumstances, it’s often difficult for us to separate the lies from the truth.
And in those circumstances we often throw up our hands in defeat. ย We chalk it up to bad luck, juju or karma. ย We think that being stuck in the pit of despair is where we belong, and so we scowl when we look in the mirror, believing that God is also scrunching up His face in disgust over the failure that we are.
Take a minute and ponder this…
[alert]“When you look at a baby rolling over, you wouldn’t think of shouting,‘FAIL! ย You call that walking?!’, so why would we think that God, our loving Father,
would ever look down on us in our mess and trials and say the same thing? ย God delights in His children when they bravely try new things. ย It’s called progress.”
– Ted Dodd, pastor at Covenant Community Church -C3-[/alert]
If we could hit “snooze” on these dooms-day thoughts of failure and the inability to measure up; momentarily delaying the inevitable finger-waging we’re about to give ourselves, we could use that moment to redirect our thoughts to fall in line with how God views us.
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. ย (2 Corinthians 10:5)
In Paul’s letter to the church of Corinth, he reminds them (and us) that in Christย we have the power to destroy these arguments thatย directly apposeย who we truly are; redeemed in ourย identity in Christ, and cause them to bend to the will of God.
In that moment, by calling upon our Redeemer,ย our thoughts that rename us as failures because of our struggles can be overthrown and replaced with the understanding that instead the trials we face serve a great purpose in shaping our lives to be closer to Christ.
Do you struggle with identifying the truth?
This is a great visual that can help you distinguish the voices within.
This spring we’ll be exploring this concept a little further through a brand new book by one of my favorite authors, Annie F. Downs! ย I hope you’ll join me and The Imperfect Vessel’s online community for a free online book study of,ย “Looking for Lovely: Collecting the Moments that Matter“.
You can connect with her on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.[/three-fourths]
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