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When the going gets tough, do you cut and run? My wife (Elena) and I joke about how if we won a billion dollars, we could just disappear. I think at one point she started planning our family bug-out bags. It’s a panic-reaction to stress; fight or flight.
Life can be hard and sad and frustrating. Responsibilities and bills and monotony and disappointments and middle age…
Here’s the thing about being a Christian… This life isn’t about us anymore. The very first sentence in Pastor Rick Warren’s bestseller The Purpose Driven Life is, “It’s not about you.” God called us to serve His Kingdom and we can trust Him to take care of us, no matter what problems we face in this world.
Being a Christian is hard sometimes. Jesus warned us in John 16, “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” But we don’t always act like that is true – that Jesus has “overcome the world.”
When Christians bail (hey, that’s the name of this blog!) on our responsibilities (which include: to love and care for the broken, be a light in the darkness, the city on a hill and the salt of the Earth) it isn’t just our own lives we are diminishing, it’s us failing the Kingdom of God.
But faith isn’t about pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps – it’s about God’s Spirit enabling and equipping us to take on the challenges of the journey. There will be times when that journey feels exciting and fresh and then times when it feels like God has forgotten us.
But He hasn’t. Nothing can keep you from His Love (Romans 8:38-39). So don’t bail on The Calling when life gets hard. Shine brighter! Pray deeper. Worship honestly. Or like Anna of Arendelle says, “Do the next right thing.”
To all my brothers and sisters who daily take up their cross and keep doing the next right thing – THANK YOU. Thank you for your service to God’s Kingdom. Thank you for demonstrating to others how it’s done.
*Below is a picture of Christian Bale since I used his name as a pun.
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**Also, sorry for not writing about love or whatever since it is Valentine’s Day. I really don’t care for this holiday. Do you know when the last time I got flowers was? Never. Guys like flowers too. Stupid Valentine’s.