The Journey

There are so many times in life that I want to just give up. I know that anything is possible through God, but I also know that he puts limits on us that just probably aren't going to change. There are the extremes...like I will never win an Olympic medal...and even less likely, I will never fly. Yes, God can do anything he wants, but we know that there are a lot of things that he does not have in his plan to step in to do. It goes from those extremes down, but everything seems to have a certain percent chance of happening, and God is not likely to alter those chances very often. We have to make decisions in life based on those limitations, and expect the failures and successes of life to coincide with those percentages.

Obviously, I'm not talking about God speaking to us to do something that we don't think we have much chance of doing. I know that those are the times he does step in and helps us beat the odds. But, generally speaking, we will live the majority of life dealing with those odds and percentages.

That said, we have to prepare ourselves for the failures in life. Some are physical, some are moral, and some are spiritual. I have always looked at my life as climbing a mountain. I always thought of it as climbing a mountain that had several plateaus along the way. In other words, you worked hard to reach a certain spot, and then you rested and enjoyed it for a while. After a time of rest and enjoyment, you began to climb again with your eye on the next plateau. And somewhere at the top was a plateau that you would end up at and rest and enjoy life until you die or until Jesus returns.

I hated the idea of "setbacks." I hated the idea of getting knocked down only to have to reclimb a certain area for a second time. I've had some big kick backs in my life lately, but I realize that it's not a "reclimbing" for no reason. I am learning new lessons I missed the first time and being reminded of some I might have forgotten. Most importantly, I've learned that the plateaus aren't there for me to stop and enjoy. That mentality caused me to miss three very important facts:

1. Because plateaus aren't there for me to stop and enjoy, I have to realize that enjoyment of life has to me "all along the whole trip." God didn't design us to live life at only full-speed and stopped. I have to pace myself and enjoy it all along to enjoy it at all. I do have to stop and rest, regroup, and look both back and forward to prepare for the next stretch of climbing, but the enjoyment still has to come all the way.

2. There are always parts of life that we aren't going to like. There are times when we struggle in our marriage, our jobs, our friends, our kids, and our relationship with God. We have to find the balance of taking the enjoyment from the positive areas, but not neglecting to better all of the areas.

3. There is no top to our mountain here on this earth. I wondered once if there would be a point to a man climbing a mountain only to die as soon as he reached the top. I realize that this world is just a blip on the timeline of my eternity, and if I spent the whole time "working" and "climbing" and never enjoy the results the way I wanted to, then that's okay. You see, I'm driving in a race where the winner's circle is in heaven and it wouldn't matter if I died in a crash on my final lap or my first lap, and it could very well be that I'm only here to work and climb (and sometimes reclimb) and never see the benefits until I get to heaven. Think about it like a basketball game where your high school team is playing in a league against NBA players. God does not promise that through him we won't go out every night and get stomped by those teams. It says he can give us that victory at any time, but our victory may not come until we are gone from this world. Someone may look at our lives and think, "they worked and worked but never got anywhere." If that work was what God intended for you to do, then you did get somewhere, but it won't be seen in this lifetime.

Daniel 3:16-18:
"Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up."

Acts 7:59-60:
And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

The only difference in these two stories is how God chose to work. Each person had the same responsibility to do what they did. The earthly result was different, but the eternal result was the same.

Not sure if this helps anyone else, but I pray that I can work and climb even harder in life while realizing that I may only be working for the promise to stand before God one day and be judged based on my journey rather than my accomplishments because my destination is set. When that is the case, it no long matters where you are at in your climb, or if you fall back from time to time...it only matters that you continue that climb.