Perhaps the path to character and hope is perseverance.
Last Sunday, my pastor told the story of an elementary school project that he put off until the last minute. When he turned in a thrown together mess, the teacher simply shook her head and allowed him to re-do it over his Christmas break. At the time, he didn’t see that she was in any way “helping,” him.
He ended up writing a well thought out paper because he had to. He went on to say that God sometimes helps us by doing nothing.
I feel like that concept really makes us squirm these days. I work in an elementary school office where we see parents all day long bringing in lunch boxes that got left at home, and water bottles, and homework, and ice cream money.
We have become a society that really doesn’t believe in the idea of suffering the consequences. If our kids don’t study and fail a test, no worries, they can re-take it.
But, who can blame the kids? The adults are making the rules.
If we run up too much debt, we can file bankruptcy. The idea of the bail out has become part of who we are. Has that philosophy made us better off?
Is that how God’s Kingdom works? Is Christianity merely just about intentionally making one bad decision after another, knowing that grace will save us?
Yes, it’s true that we can always be forgiven if we honestly seek forgiveness and repent which means ceasing the sinful behavior to begin with.
But, on Sunday, my pastor threw out another idea. He said that faith is not just a feeling; faith is also thinking and doing and that when we dig ourselves into a deep hole where we have to make a move or find that the game is over, we really come to understand that “we can do everything through Christ who strengthens us.”
I think I remember reading that somewhere. Oh yeah, that’s Philippians 4:13.
Any good parent will tell you that sometimes the best thing you can do for your kids is let them figure it out on their own. Sometimes they need to fail. Sometimes they need to face the consequences of their actions. It’s hard and it’s not pretty, but it makes them stronger and builds their character.
Sometimes God does the same for us.
The Bible tells us that, “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us….” Romans 5:3-5a
Look around. Couldn’t our world really use more character and hope?
God always hears our prayers and He always answers them though not always in the ways that we would like. But, do we always answer our own children’s requests in the ways that they would like? Does that mean we don’t love them?
Perhaps we can’t just regularly exclude God from our lives and then expect Him to help us every time we get in a bind. Perhaps, like a loving father, He stands back sometimes and let’s us learn that we do need Him on a daily basis, that His Word does matter, and when we willingly choose to wander, we can find ourselves in a mess of our own making.
There’s always forgiveness and redemption. Jesus ultimately provided that.
But, we are creatures of free will. We have choices. Obedience is one of them. We also have the gift of learning from our mistakes if we are willing to admit them. Even when we do find ourselves in a pit of some sort, that requires us to do our own climbing out, we are assured that, “we can do everything through Christ who strengthens us.”
A sermon reminded me. Perhaps you needed reminding too.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂