There is Always Another Hill to Climb

The most exhausting part of life is that it keeps going.  What you did yesterday, you have to do today.  Every hill you have conquered will have to be conquered again.

Sadly, we often fail to rise to the occasion.

In today's modern western culture we have this exaggerated sense of self-worth that demands we are "owed" something.  We want to rest on yesterday's success and use that as a barometer for the entirety of existence.  There is even a very interesting and insightful article here that explains these delusions more eloquently.    Yesterday was hard, I don't want to have to do that again today....or...tomorrow. 

This plays out in a variety of situations and relationships.  We work hard once, and try to ride that single success into the sunset.  And while a singularly great moment can carry you for a while, it only goes so far.  When I was in financial sales I would have months where I made gobs of money(relatively) but if I stopped working, within 4 months I would be broke again.

A correlating effect of this attitude is that we try to make everything we do become the "NEXT BIG THING".  It isn't enough just to do your job, keep your nose clean, and keep plugging away.  Swinging for the fences is what it is all about.  And we exhaust ourselves with this behavior.  We only apply ourselves to something huge, and let the little steps drift away. 

Think of the places you see this play out...

The husband who was a hopeless romantic when you dated, but now comes home from work, sits on the couch until he falls asleep and doesn't remember that this weekend your mom is coming to visit.

The athlete who had a great year, and comes back from the off season 40 pounds overweight and unwilling to listen to his coaches anymore...because he knows better!

The church that did things in a certain way 20 years ago and grew rapidly.  And so today, they keep doing that same thing, and are confused and frustrated that the young families they used to reach no longer visit them and stay. 

The parent who was really engaged with their son when he was young, but don't know the name of their teenagers best friend today.


What got me thinking about this is from studying Exodus.  It starts with this reminder of Joseph and his brothers and then says, "Then a new king to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt".   And thus began the downfall.

We don't know the particulars of the Israelites experiences post Joseph and Pre-Slavery, but that is an important line for us.  It would seem to indicate that the successive generations were quite willing to ride on the coattails of Great Uncle Joe.  And when his impact was no longer relevant and contemporary, they were on the outs. 

They didn't make a name for themselves on "This Day", they let yesterday do their work for them. 

Life is a series of repeats.  Every day you have to climb back up that hill.  Carry that torch.  Do your job. 

Where are you today?  Are you willing to put in the work you did yesterday?  Or, are you coasting?  You might think coasting is the easy option.  But let me tell you that is a lie.  Playing catch up is always more exhausting than just doing a little bit of the right thing every day.

Regret and Redemption

We love redemption stories.  Some of the most popular movies are about heroes who have made mistakes, been down a dark path, but find their way back to be the hero.  One of my guilty pleasures is the show "True Hollywood Stories".  Without fail, at approximately the midpoint of the show, the narrators voice gets foreboding as he says, "but then it allllll fell apart......"  Then the rest of the show details their recovery from the fall from grace.

Why do these stories resonate with us? 

"For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God"

Within each of our experiences we have a consistent theme of mistakes and regrets.  And sometimes those regrets are debilitating.  Bridges have been burned, lives ruined, futures deterred.  Often the weight of the heartache of our past(and even present) creates an inability to even perceive a future that could be shaped by hope and joy.

There is a quiet desperation in all of us that weeps over that which we cannot fix.  Decisions that cannot be undecided.  Actions that cannot be changed.

How do we move forward?  How can the future be different from our past?

The other day I came across one of the most powerful quotes.  It was in the context of how faithful Christians should read the Old Testament.  It said that when we read/interact/try to understand the Old Testament we should do so with the Shadow of Christ cast over it.

????

Everything that we struggle understanding in the OT takes a new shape when we read it through the understanding of Christ moving within it towards the New Covenant.  Nothing that has happened makes sense and has hope and value if it is not moving us towards Christ.  And, if it is moving us towards Christ, even that which was difficult becomes a beautiful testimony of hope within hurt.

How can we move forward?  How can the future be different from our past?

Allowing the shadow of Christ to cover your past. 

In the story of the regrets that dominate our hearts we cannot hope to have hope without redemption.  Redemption does not make that which you have done, or that which was done to you, suddenly become "ok", or "right".  But it changes the results from destruction to construction. 

Joseph(from the hit musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat) is the picture of what this looks like.  His brothers have quite literally destroyed his life.  When, years later, he has the chance to confront them, he says, "What you have intended for evil, God intended for God to accomplish what he is now doing"   His brothers had done evil against him, but God never let Joesph's hope be defined by what happened to him, but what God was going to do through him and for him.

When we stand alone we cannot redefine our past.  There is only one who stands outside and inside of time who straddles the reality of our lives and shapes it according to His purposes.  What choice will we make?  To give Him control to redeem and heal what has happened?  Or, will we allow the infection of past pains rot us away from the inside?

Run.  Run to the one who will take your pain and give you promise.  Lay down your burdens and rest in the shadow of the Almighty and rest.

The hope of redemption is in forgiveness.  In Christ everything

 is forgiven, EVERYTHING is redeemable

 

Living in the Moment, but never YOLO....

Matthew 6:27
"Who of you by worrying can add a single our to his life?"

I recently heard a celebrity share about meeting a fan a while back.  The fan never took his eyes of his phone screen as he taped and took pictures of the whole brief meeting.  Wasn't even able to shake hands well because he wasn't looking.  The celebrity was really taken aback by the whole thing.  Didn't you want to meet me?  You can look at pictures of me online anytime you want!!

As a people, we have lost the simple enjoyment of being in the moment.  Every brief experience is only a reflection of something that has come before, or, a prelude to something tomorrow.  We grow restless.  Discontent.  Frustrated.  And the more we refuse to embrace the moment, the more we lose that moment forever. 

A recent study on memory showed that all this constant picture taking of events that we all like to do actually is hampering our ability to create actual memories.  Do you get that?  Taking pictures to have a memory is causing you to actually not have a real memory.  Only a photograph that becomes you looking at someone else's life.

We never live in the moment.  Either the past holds us captive, or, anxiety and dreams about the future diminish our "nows".  Think about it.  How many moments today did you find yourself reliving some past event that you regret(or enjoyed)?  How much energy did you put forth to contemplating scenarios about "tomorrow" that you have little to no control over?  And the more we do that, replay sparkly HD memory films, the more we resent how dull it currently is. 

If only it was yesterday........ 

Tomorrow can't come soon enough.....

Jesus shouts out through the din.  He says, "YOU HAVE NO CONTROL.....YOU MAY VERY WELL DIE TONIGHT!"  But also, within that, he gently encourages us...."God is the source of your hope, and HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN TODAY!"

Something that is disgustingly popular today is the phraise, "YOLO", or, "You Only Live Once".  It's meant to be a sort of rallying cry to just be crazy right now because who knows what might happen to you.  And someone might be reading this and thinking, "Yah, Jesus, the original YOLO'er!".  If you are thinking that, please slap yourself. 

This is not Jesus telling you to just embrace the crazy side of you and do something outlandish.  The context is about finding God in each moment that you have.  Giving Him your past pains and your future frets.  To live in the freedom of the now knowing that He is going to do what is right for you ALWAYS.

There is a powerful shift that takes place when we begin to live in the moment the way Jesus calls us to. 

When God owns our now, our past begins to reveal that patterns of hope and love that He was laying down for us, even while we were His enemies.  And our past becomes a testimony of Joy found in trials.

When God owns our now, our future becomes a wide open tapestry that is not controlled or defined by any one experience, event, relationship, or pain.  And our future no longer becomes something we have to try to make happen, but simply to experience.

You are not the person you were yesterday.  You are not the person  you will be tomorrow.  Don't give those people to God.  Give Him who you are right now.  And they will become His as well.