Sometimes we feel the weight of the world on our shoulders and we wonder if we’re even strong enough to carry it all. We all experience this at some point in our lives. We take the worries and burdens of other people and lay them on ourselves; thinking we can solve every problem and change the world. And yeah, sure… in some way we can but let’s be honest, we can’t even defeat our own giants let alone the giants of the world.
When this concept came to mind, I immediately jumped to the tv show My 600lb Life and thought about how our lives are similar.
No…the numbers on the scale may not be the same but the way in which we harbor inside our past, feelings, burdens, secrets, etc. are pretty much identical. We may not be bedridden or depending on our friends and family to bring us food but we become trapped inside of ourselves when we don’t give our cares back to the one who created us.
Carrying the weight of everything can weigh us down, literally. It can make us feel helpless and often dependent on factors that aren’t necessarily good for us. It can make us look worn out, tired, unattractive and we become mean and irritable. It’s not healthy nor is it a sustainable lifestyle. God didn’t create us to be this way.
So if it does all of this stuff to us why is it so hard for us to let things go? Why is it so hard for us to give it back to God and allow him to create in us a clean heart?
Over these last couple of months during my “life sabbatical” I had a lot of time to reflect and learn who I was (and who I wasn’t). I was quickly reminded that I don’t have all of the answers and I can’t solve every problem. I needed to do some healing from the inside out. As hard as it might have been for me to forgive or maybe even forget some things that hurt me in the present or in the past, I found it to be absolutely necessary to live the life God created for me.
This may sound crazy to some but I often envisioned God talking to me how Dr. Now talks to his patients. (If you don’t know who Dr. Now is, he is the doctor that performs all of the weight loss surgery on the show. And I am by no means comparing him to God in any way.)
On the show, Dr. Now means business and he doesn’t hold back. Haha! He will call you out in a heartbeat and crush your hopes and dreams right before your eyes. He tells his patients that it would be almost impossible for them to be successful in the long term unless they remove people [and things] from their environment that is enabling them. So they either have to change their dynamic with those enablers or separate from them if they want to succeed.
Yes! Imagine that. That’s exactly how God was dealing with me over these past two months.
Everything wasn’t all roses but much like grapes are pushed, crushed, pressed and harvested to make wine, my life was being put through the test and process all the same. People and things were being shifted and stripped from me that I just had to be okay with it because it was necessary.
Benchmarks. Lose 30lbs in a month. Stick to a strict 1200 calorie diet. Incorporate at least 4 hours of cardio in a week. Those are just some of the things Dr. Now requires of his patients on the show. But God. God requires so much more of us. And much like the people on the show, we have benchmarks too! God won’t allow us to step into another season if we haven’t fully developed in an area that’s necessary for us to be successful in the new season. Until we meet our “benchmark” we may find ourselves repeating the same situation or lesson until we’ve slayed our giant.
So here’s to the fight to keep going! Here’s to the will to press on even when things don’t seem like they’re improving. Know that God is working things our for our good but we’ve got to be willing and able to change and not remain stagnant. Everything grows…including us. But we can’t get in our own way and stunt our growth.
Be open to change. Be open to maturity. Be open to building and cultivating your relationship with God.
It’s gonna take work. It’s not going to be easy. You will have days you want to give up or throw in the towel. But imagine living life abundantly, having all that you could have asked or thought of. Yeah…that’s it. That’s living life with the King.
Be Encouraged!