Speed Bumps

Do you ever set out to do something, or look to the future and think about what your life might be? Do you ever look back and remember where you've been and think "wow that person was young and had no idea where this life was really heading."

Stop reading and listen to (or look up the lyrics) For King & Country "Wholehearted". I love this song and it really causes me to think and see things differently "What great adventure ever plays out just the way you've planned?"

This life throws us curve balls all the time. We spend so much time planning/thinking about our future that we lose sight of the moment we're in and forget to set our sights on heaven. We don't see the speed bumps coming until we get jolted by them and remember to pay attention to the moment we're in. At the point of life I'm in, and a lot of people around me, we're so focused on the future and what we will be doing with our lives that we don't take time to stop. Breath. Think. Discern what God's plan is and pray for grace to follow it and we lose sight of our purpose. We lose sight of God and get lost in our problems when, what are we here for? Are we here to simply grow up, accumulate knowledge, money and happiness? Are we here to just live our lives and ask God to bless us? Are we here for the good parts only? Or are we here for something more?

Are we here to seek Him first? Let Him define what our days look like? Let Him guide us in everything?

"So when I'm stuck out in the cold
Let me be warm-hearted
When it weighs too much to hold
Let me be light-hearted
When all I have is not enough
Won't be broken hearted
Cause you taught me how to love, to live to learn
To live whole hearted
Oh wholehearted"

I don't like speed bumps, they hurt, they're hard and make me see parts of myself I wish weren't a thing. They push me out of my comfort zone and require me to do new things, look at things in new ways and force me to grow. We just want to get it over with and learn a little something along the way, but what if it isn't just a learning experience?

Think of it this way: What if a book or movie plot played out just the way the main character wanted? No plot twists just a merry la-la land? Pretty boring right?

Think about your own life. What gives it color? It's not when absolutely nothing is going on, you're doing the same thing everyday and nothing new ever happens. Also boring.

I look back at my life and see that while the years Jesus has been in it have been the hardest, they are also the ones with the greatest joy, the most blessings (or me realizing how good He is and always has been to me). I wouldn't trade that for anything.

So. 

"Should we take the easy life?
Should we take the smoother ride?
No need to ask, I see the answer written in your eyes
So sail the ship onto the sand
No telling where we're gonna land
Oh that's just part of our romance"

What if the crazy life changing speed bumps aren't just a yucky medicine to take. What if they are something that's a big part of our lives?

What is the biggest thing that gives our lives color? Relationships. First is our relationship with God, our mission in life is to glorify Him, but not as mindless robots, but as humans who were made and can have an intimate relationship with Him. Second, our relationships with people, family and friends. Without both of these what point is anything else you can have in life? When you accomplish something what do you do? You tell your friends. Who takes care of you when you're sick? Family.

So for me the best thing in this life is relationships. (I could be a bias extrovert but even the introverts have to agree here ;). You poor individuals can only handle so much of the glorious companionship before your minds are so overrun with joy that you simply must go home and recharge :P. I have now made sense of the introvert! Your welcome ;P)

So if the best thing this life has to offer is a relationship with Jesus. And the speed bumps show us just how much we need Him, push us deeper into Him, strengthen our trust in him then, speed bumps are so much more then what we make of them. They are an opportunity to grow in Christ, get a little closer to Him, understand Him just a little bit more, love Him just a little bit more. A part of life.

What makes one relationship better than another? Take your best friend vs. someone you just met. What's the difference? Obviously there's the fact you don't know them as well, you haven't shared much of what you've been through. You haven't cried with them, been there when they were feeling low or done any super crazy things that you would only do with them. But what allows you to do those things? Trust. You trust your best friend because you know them, you've done things together and slowly built that trust to the point where you'd be willing to trust them with whatever is going on in your life. 

And that is what Jesus is for us and so much more. When we are afraid He is our courage, when we don't know the way, He is our guide, when we sin He is our forgiving grace. For goodness sake when we have absolutely nothing left to give, then He shows Himself strong through our weakness.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 "But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, Then I am strong."

"On and on and on we'll go
And to our lives through the unknown
On and on and on we'll fly
Write the legend of our lives
On and on and on we'll fly
For every day and every night
The greatest stories ever told
Were written with a heart that's whole."

So the point is not just to learn from the speed bumps, but enjoy and trust God through them, because of them. Follow His plan in spite of the hardships, it's by suffering through this life just as Christ did that we can see the most of who God is.

So when this worlds problems have you down, or you have too much to do, or anything else. Always take time to remember what (or Who) matters the most. The fountain that will never run dry. The source of joy and hope that never fails.
"And you can’t take away what the world didn’t give
We were made for more, we were made for more
At the end of the day, this will remain Forever we are Yours, forever we are Yours"
("we are Yours" by I Am They. Listen to it now!)

At the end of the day, of the week, of the month, of the year and of our lives that will remain. We are God's. When your in pieces, that won't have faded. When we are at our worst there's a place we can run to, eternity and the fact that even though this world can make us feel so broken. So hopeless. We have a promise that this world can never touch, a promise that isn't of this world, isn't bound by time or even our sin.

We are His. He is always with us. He is there to help us through our worst. Being a child of God does not mean that the instant we ask God for help the problems go away or we are a failure. That's not the point, the point is to let God love you through the speed bumps, when your at your worst, so that at the end of it your trust is stronger and you love Him even more.

I write all this out of the overflow of my heart having just learned all of it myself. I don't know who all this could speak to. But if this seems out of reach, pray about it right now! Ask God to work this out in you. I promise you that He can and wants to. No matter how bad things seem God is right there to change your heart and I'm living proof of that.

(Here's a really great video quickly outlining the promises of God, it's really good and encouraging! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJvqmhGs1Y8&feature=youtu.be)

Thanks for reading,
Zachary