Yesterday morning, I was on the road again with my parents and my girlfriend……for about 5-10 minutes before we pulled over and realized we weren’t coming back as quickly as we had hoped.
The small platform that was hitched to the back of our small 5 passenger Chrysler 300 was not staying off the ground as it dragged and make sparks for a while.
While solutions were being tossed out, I suggested U-Haul; grab a trailer, and be back on the road.
Except when we got to U-Haul and bought a trailer, we realized the blinker and brake lights were very messed up……I mean the left turn signal went off when we signaled right and vice versa…..oh and only 1 brake light worked……so yeah no big deal.
“Eh, it’s good enough,” is what my stepdad had said about 2 or 3 times before we took this as our best option and moved on.
1 Corinthians 9:7
Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink the milk?
While my stepdad most likely could've found another solution to our lousy trailer situation, he was good with what we had, and what we had got us home with all of our stuff. But as Christians, sometimes doing just enough or the bare minimum doesn't always cut it as "good enough."
Some trials in our lives, we just give up and choose to let them overwhelm us and we just say things such as “whatever” or “to heck with that”, “it’s fine”, or “eh, it’s good enough”.
"Settling for less than you know you can receive is just telling God you don't believe He has the power to change your life for the better. "
This past semester, I can recall seeing and personally experiencing different scenarios just like this that were detrimental in others different lives, and sometimes my own life.
I saw multiple relationships being taken advantage of as one end was abusive to the other end, and that other end was "just fine" with the situation.
I saw folks spending more money than they had to spend, and more time spent than they had to spend (I'm included here), and it was "all good" until money and time ran out.
I experienced multiple days where I could've chosen to go work out, read my Bible, or even just take some time to breathe, but instead I chose to gain some big weight, set myself apart from my faith unless I had another devo coming up, or if I was falling apart.
I was putting school over Christ, and my future dreams over my current state of being.
And just like that, I was falling into the category of "one of those Christians", who says and acts one way, but does not follow suit with what God and the Bible has called all Christians to do:
To walk humbly with our God and to obey when we least feel like it.
If we are to call ourselves Christians, we can't call it good enough unless we've tried everything possible, and then ask for help for others to push us even further.
Settling for less than you know you can receive is just telling God you don't believe He has the power to change your life for the better. Don't for a second believe God can't turn your life around in 2 hops, a skip and a jump because He's far more powerful than your mind can ever understand.
Galatians 6:9
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
I mentioned earlier how I was putting God on the side until I faced another trial or I had a devo to write, and that is pretty spot on.
Yes, there were weeks where I was on a spiritual high where God made all my days and nights just great, but there were also the times when I left Him in the dust because I had 2 tests and 3 projects due in a week, and forgot to make time for God, and to ask Him to keep me straight through my battles.
But looking back, making my faith more of a task than a privilege, I really took advantage of how incredible it is to be able to have God as a part of my life without fear of being teased or killed for my beliefs.
The past few weeks, I've looked back as far as my very first devo out of 52 now written to remind myself how grateful I am and should continue to be that I can write these devotionals, that I can pray in a coffee shop in public, and that I can open a Bible without being looked at funny.
I've looked back to remember the nights I was up till 2 am making sure a friend who had too much fun got back to their room safely, and then wrote my devotional until 5:30 in the morning.
I've looked back at my messages and emails I've received to see how many people were struggling with addiction, hurting because of a lost loved one, or holding grudges at a friend from their past, and how God's work through my heart and my typing fingers made those folks' hearts change in an instant.
If God is powerful enough to flip peoples' perspectives with a 5 minute devotional written by a young fella like myself, than I think He's definitely powerful enough to keep changing things like war, racism, the economy, you name it. I have not yet found anything God cannot do.
Colossians 3:32-34
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
Just as I won’t be kicking back and relaxing as some Christians do……attending church on Sundays and calling it good……none of us should kick back and call it good.
We should be aiming to love others we struggle to love right now, aiming to be better than we were yesterday and not waiting until the new year to say one thing and do another, and aiming to change lives......and if you really want to change lives, start with yourself.
Before I started writing these devotionals, I had to completely rewire my mind to focus on God over myself.
Have I messed up between then and now? Of course I have, but I never settled for good enough, God and I will reconvene when I get my life together after college, even though I really wanted to sometimes.
I mean, that right above is exactly what this entire journey has been about.
- TAKING YOUR FAITH OFF THE SHELF -
We can't wait for something big to happen in our lives before we decide to start following God. It's just like working out, eating a meal, or even taking a book off the shelf and reading it. Once you're done working out, eating, or reading, you know you'll be working out, eating, and reading again soon. And the more you do it, the better off you're going to be.
Yes, I'm so very thankful to finally be done writing my Sunday Morning Devos, but I'm even more thankful that I get to continue working for the Lord and with Him.
Just as God was probably thankful to be done working on the Heavens and the Earth, He took a day to rest, and hasn't stopped working since. Neither one of us, God nor myself have any plans that I know of to stop believing in Him, having faith that He will carry everyone that believes in Him home to Heaven when we're done here on Earth.
Let us not become wearing in doing good, because if we work heartily for the Lord, He's going to bring us home and He's going to reward us.
Have faith.
Don't settle for "good enough."
And never, ever, ever let someone (that includes yourself) tell you that God has given up on you.
With that said,
Live with God and the people He's given you to live with, love God and love with God just as He's called us to love everyone, no matter how pestering some people can be at times, remember they're your brothers and sisters in Christ, and be loved by God.
God isn't done with you yet, He didn't make all of creation and then say at the end of the 6th day, "Eh, it's good enough," and walk away. He's still to this day working to slowly but surely put His world back together again through all of us because God is enough.
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