But Why?

            When I was in college, Algebra took every ounce of energy I had and still managed to confuse me!  I studied and did all the homework, yet nights would often end in tears because I just couldn’t understand it!  Thankfully, my daughters came to the rescue.  One lived in South Carolina and we would spend an hour or more on the telephone nearly every day I had Math just getting through my homework and doing practice problems.  She would ask, “Okay, Mom, what’s the first step?”  Most of the time I could answer correctly, and sometimes even when she asked, “What’s next?” I again could answer.  But most of the time I would either mess up the order of operations or forget a necessary step to get the right answer.  I found I could, however, count on her or my younger daughter to work with me over and over again until I finally got a handle on what I was doing.  The most frustrating part was it just didn’t seem to make sense.  I kept asking, “But why….?”   I finally accepted the fact that “why” wasn’t the most important element in the math problem, it was following the steps to get the right answer!

            Our lives with Christ can sometimes be like that!  We keep trying to go through life doing everything on our own.  We don’t consider that Christ knows much better than we, how to handle every circumstance that occurs.  We dive in with both feet, often splashing at life, like the water when it’s hit, in every direction.  We create a monsoonal effect on situations that don’t even need waves.  Then the waves have a ripple effect like water currents in areas that didn’t even need to get wet and then wonder why our life feels like an angry ocean!

            So what is the secret to being successful?  I believe it’s a matter of keeping focused on Christ.  As humans it is so easy to get distracted with all life hands us day in and day out with work, raising children and trying to make ends meet;  not to mention the media bombardment, sports and video games, TV, individual hobbies and any other thing that steals our time and attention away from Christ.

            It is necessary to bring our focus back to what is important.  When we are focused on Christ, even if life hands us lemons we are better able to make “lemonade!”  We are called to run the race for Christ, not stop and not give up.  Like the little ones racing for whatever the prize is in the photograph, we are to keep looking forward to our prize which includes blessings here on Earth while we wait for His return and then the eternal rewards when we join Him in heaven.

            It is in this arena where we are truly successful.  Ultimately, everything we earn here will stay here.  All our efforts in this lifetime, will lose their importance when we pass on.  Fame, money, material goods or anything else of this world is just that: of this world, and has no place in heaven.   I worked intently to get good grades in college but it’s what I do with my life for Christ that matters, not whether or not I earned the desired A in a math class.

            As the new year closes in, are you ready to commit your life to running the race for Jesus?  It’s the best New Year’s resolution you could make! And it is the one resolution that could have everlasting rewards.  It is the “secret to success!”  If you’ve never given your life to Christ, I encourage you to do that now.  Make 2013 the best it can be.

            Happy New Year everyone!

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.   Proverbs 3:5-6