Come with me to a journey through life. It is a great journey. As we start, let me tell you what to expect – I will be your tour guide and you can trust me. I have taken many people through this tour and for many years.
The road we are taking is all-flat. There are no mountains to climb or valleys to go down. There are no dangerous animals or people to fear and there are no thieves to take our possessions. You do not need to worry about hospitals or taking up insurance because no one gets sick along the way. Everything is also provided for, and you do not need to carry money with you.
Everyone we meet along the way is very friendly – no one tells lies and are very co-operative and supportive.
All dreams are achievable here because there is no shortage of anything. Devils do not walk the path we have chosen. If you wish you can bring your spouse and children, you may also live in one of the towns if you so wish.
By now you must have noticed that I am just kidding. The utopia I am talking about does not exist on planet earth. Yet the thing that really hinders us from becoming the husband, wife, pastor, leader, student, etc. that we ought to be is the thinking that, “if only I did not have this problem, or that circumstance, I would have done it. That is the imagination that it is possible to have an environment to work in; raise a family and live in; do business or ministry that is free of trouble – the assumption, that in order to be successful, you need an environment that is problem free.
Besides, we spend a lot of valuable time working on alleviating perceived problems on our path as if we will do better if there were no problems. We expend so much of ourselves solving problems we think are hindering our progress.
Waiting for perfect, good, environment keeps so many of us hoping and waiting while time ticks away, loosing every opportunity forever. My wife and best friend of many years likes reminding me often: life is not a rehearsal; We will not live it later but now.
Issues Abound
Have you heard people talk about the trials and problems of their life? Ministers justifying their impotence in ministry with one word, “ours is a very hard area”. Business people convincing one another, “these days there is no money”. Others narrate how difficult their marriages have been. If only they were married to a more loving, more realistic, more understanding, less complicated spouse…theirs would have been a happy marriage. Others believe that if they were working in a better environment, without the limitations they now have, they would have made it to the top a decade ago.
Have you listened to the story or testimony of a successful person and caught yourself feeling:” Isn’t he/she lucky to have been at a good place that helped them climb so easily?” And all you are doing is envying such a person while all the time disqualifying yourself with the thoughts: “my situation is different. If only I did not have such and such limitations, I too would have made it.”
Some twenty years ago I set my mind to do what for me was an easy and workable thing for my life. It was what I believed was God’s will for my life. But about 80% of my friends and brethren thought and told me “It cannot be done”. The more I thought about it and what they were saying the more I got confused. Then I bumped into a wall poster in a bookshop – it changed my outlook. The poster had the drawing of a man skiing at terrific speed and below it were the words:
THOSE WHO SAY IT CANNOT BE DONE ARE USUALLY INTERRUPTED BY OTHERS WHO ARE DOING IT.
Blame people. Blame your spouse. Blame even God if you like, but somebody will be doing what seems impossible with you. I bought the poster and hanged it in my little room then. I looked at some of the problems they pointed out: some I could handle, others I could not. Those I could handle I did. Those I could not, I left in the hands of God and moved on. Then I went ahead and did what they thought was not possible.
I have known since then what you think and say, controls you. Those same marriages you see as having gone beyond you just need your new energy and perhaps a change of strategy. You probably can leave all the problems you are trying to solve and go on to success. Ride over the storm, it has a way of dying itself out!
You Will Have Trouble
Our Lord Jesus once said something that used to confuse me. “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33, NIV. In other words, as long as you live troubles will be there but you can take heart even though the troubles are there.
Did it ever occur to you that God does not plan to kill the devil, or recreate a world where no storms occur to give you a perfect environment to become what He created you for?
Did you realize that success in any field is not based on the absence of Satan and his demons or his agents; financial limitations, community hostility, family disagreements or misunderstandings, failure, the threat of success i.e. pride, fatigue, discouragement, loss of esteem, etc.?
They all militate against and as Shakespeare said, “When troubles come they do not come in singles but in battalions. Yet the same things that cripples and immobilizes some people, stir others and propel them to great heights”.
