HERE IN THE UNITED STATES we like to proudly pronounce that if you
work hard enough, you can be anything you want to be. Exclamation point! Work
hard, keep your nose to the grindstone, strive, keep trying harder, and you
can be a success, if you want to be. Through your hard work you can earn it.
The problem is that it’s not
entirely true. Hard work never guaranteed anyone anything. There are all sorts
of obstacles that can get in the way, like not having the natural talent to
achieve what you dreamed of achieving (particularly in sports), or not having
the brains to do the math required to be an scientist. My older son had a
college English professor who told him that he had always wanted to be an
engineer, and he was convinced that it was his poor high school teachers not
being able to teach math correctly that held him back. Then, when he got into
college and took his first math class in engineering, he realized he didn’t have the brains required to be an
engineer. So he became an English professor.
And what about parents who hold
their kids back, for any number of reasons, or the problem of graduating from
college just about the time the economic takes a sharp downward plunge, leaving
most jobs and careers untouchable. You end up waiting tables for a decade until
it recovers, at which point you are considered pretty old and out-of-touch with
your major to be expecting an entry-level job in it. Or you major in something
that isn’t very useful to society, and you end up waiting tables anyway after
graduation. Then there’s family or personal illnesses or accidents that derail and
warp dreams.
The point is: hard work never
guarantees you anything, except maybe some satisfaction in your hard work, and
perhaps the moniker of workaholic. But we tell ourselves and others not to give
up, to push through, to strive for the good life so we can retire and
(probably) do nothing useful for the rest of our natural lives. And we strive
for all of the benefits of success, telling each other that we deserve them.
And then we get to the end of our days, and none of that matters anymore; we
regret the time we didn’t spend with family and friends. We wonder what all of
the striving was for. We kick ourselves for forgetting that souls of men are
the most important thing in the world, and that people’s time is the most
precious commodity they possess.
Yes, there is the 1% of the
population that actually has a calling, the kind of God-given purpose that
demands attention every waking moment. Something that takes years to study,
develop and perfect, like brain surgeon; something that possesses a deep, moral
obligation to people and requires every last ounce of energy you can give it.
But these are rare. And so often today you hear college students complaining
about how parents, teachers, and other adults have told them for years that
they can do anything, and then they find out it isn’t true.
When that happens, where does it
leave us emotionally and spiritually? Frustrated? Angry? Heartbroken?
It doesn’t have to leave us feeling
any of these emotions. Why? Because we have a great Savior who did all of the
striving for us, who won the battle. We don’t need to struggle over what He
already took care of over two thousand years ago. It’s what the music group
MercyMe calls “The Best News Ever”. So if you need to be reminded what the
point of the cross was, then listen and be renewed spiritually, emotionally,
and physically.
Then, after
enjoying that song, you can put on your cheerleading outfit, gather up your
rah-rah pom-poms, and do a victory dance! This next song has become my
husband’s personal anthem. Being a recovering work-striver, it really hits home
for him. It’s a reminder that Christ-followers have many things in common: doubts,
wondering if it’s worth it, feelings of worthlessness, heartbreak, and
something else we often forget. We have something bigger than all of our
problems. So if you feel as though you’ve been knocked down so many times that
you just can’t, and don’t want to pick yourself up, listen and be reminded—We
win!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AQ3bHr80PM
And finally, if
you’re discouraged about the turns life is taking in this country, or any
other, listen to Reba McEntire get to the honest basics of what it takes to
restore hope and purpose to a nation.
Reba McEntire’s
“Back to God”
Happy Fourth of
July!
May the rest of
your day and week be blessed!
Until next week.
Blessings,
Andrea
May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul
prospers (3 John 2).
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