| There's
a spiritual disease you need to be inoculated against--hardening of the
attitudes. It's a disease that makes you think your opinion is the only
right one. And as long as life cooperates with you, you're fine, but
when it doesn't, you charge ahead from one brick wall into another,
bruised and bloodied, until you quit in frustration. Then you start
blaming others, life, the devil, or God. Your faith may be
well-intentioned, but faith without flexibility is just failure looming!
Experienced kayakers know how to perform the 'Eskimo roll'. It's a
technique that enables you to roll 360 degrees under the water and up
again without drowning. It's the strategy Paul used to overcome the
challenges he faced in life. '...I have learned the secret of living in
every situation...' (v. 12 NLT). He didn't acquire it naturally, or
learn it at a 'flexibility seminar' or get it from a guru. He learned it
in the rough-and-tumble school of patience, persistence, humility,
self-denial, dedication and confidence in God. As a result he rolled
with the punches of persecution, hunger, poverty, prison, and execution,
never abdicating, while demonstrating how to 'rejoice in the Lord
always...' (Philippians 4:4 NIV). When faith collides with reality, it
flexes and holds on until victory emerges. It's like a tree that bends
in the storm, then bounces back. 'I have learned...I am ready for
anything through...the One who lives within me!' (Philippians 4:12-14
PHPS). So learn to roll with the punches! |
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