Life Lessons
Do you ever wish life came with an instruction manual? The good news is it does, it’s called the Bible. The bad news is sometimes we can be slow learners. I’m the type of person that learns best through hands-on experience. I am the type of person who will sit in a lecture or hear a sermon and think, “That’s good, but how?” Like really how does that flesh out? I want the details. So, if I were to sit down with you I would share a few pages from my life manual, fleshed out through my experiences so far. In fact, I wish I could have traveled back in time to have a chat with the younger me on a few of these topics. So, here you go... things I would have told the younger me about life…
1) Change is constant, stop fighting it and just go with it. In fact, you should learn to embrace it. The book of Ecclesiastes reminds us that life is but a vapor, here one minute and gone the next. Life is short, friend. When you are young you think everything will always be how it is. Limited vision and experience give us a perspective that nothing will ever change. However, change is the only constant thing about life. As seasons of the year come and go, so do the seasons of life. Change isn’t always bad. For some reason, we view change as a loss. The same season change that causes the leaves to die and fall is necessary for the same tree to produce new life in the season to come. When you learn to embrace change, you learn to live in a constant state of expectation. You learn to remember yesterday with all of its joys and lessons, be grateful for today because it’s the only one of its kind you have, and to embrace tomorrow with new surprises and experiences. Think about it like this, when you go on vacation for a week, you don’t spend every day fretting about going home. If you did, you would miss the moment. Instead, you enjoy the experiences that week has to offer knowing there will be a time to go home. In the same way, we should enjoy the seasons of life, getting the most out of what the season you are in has to offer, knowing it is fleeting. Ephesians 5:6 reminds us to make the most out of every opportunity! Every season may not be your favorite season, but with God every season can be good, producing its own kind of beautiful! (Psalm 1) So, embrace change with grace! Change is constant, and change is good!
2) Bloom where you are planted and remember—joy is now. Right now, in the middle of whatever stage or season you are in! Constant happiness is an allusion, constant joy is a promise. Joy is a decision and is always available if you choose it. The younger version of me would fall into the trap of, “I’ll be happy when...” Wow, do I wish I could go back and get this one right. Some of the best seasons of my life were sabotaged by this lie. Give yourself permission to bloom in the season you are in! Soon this too will pass and this season will be over. You will never have another chance to get the fruit that this season has to offer. Colossians 3 reminds us that each day we are becoming the best version of ourselves, embrace the becoming, and enjoy the journey! Give yourself grace to be joyful in the present, not tomorrow or yesterday—but today! Joy is now!
3) God uses it all! Romas 8:28 reminds us that God uses everything for our good! Not just the things we like or the seasons we enjoy more – but everything! Even the things that feel confusing, unfair, or painful at the moment God uses. The very things that the enemy tried to use to take you down, God will use to define you and not destroy you! What the enemy can’t use to kill you, will make you stronger when you steward it through the lens of faith in who God is. God is a good God and He will bring good out of even the darkest seasons of your life. God is writing your story. He doesn’t author pain or loss, but He does redeem it for your good and His glory. Some of the darkest seasons of my life have forged me into the strongest aspects of who I am. Not only has God used them to turn victimhood into victory, but He revealed aspects of Himself to me in those seasons that I would have never known otherwise. By God’s grace and mercy, He takes what life or the enemy has brought against you and uses it to serve the purposes of God in your life! If you have gone through a hard season, or maybe you’ve just plain had a hard life… surrender it all to Jesus. He is a master at making even ashes into something beautiful. Remember this, if it’s not good, God is not finished working!