I have a confession to make. Growing up within spitting distance of The City of Brotherly Love, I have never seen one Rocky movie. Not. One. And I don't care to, truthfully, but the guy had a point. Life is hard. And to keep moving forward despite the setbacks and downright disasters that come with the territory requires a special kind of something.
Someone said I was disposable when I was just a child. I chose to believe it. I lived a schizophrenic existence, vacillating between trying to be the best at being "good," and simply giving up and being what others thought I was -- a wreck. The longer I walked in brokenness, the more I twisted reality. I did unto others before they could do unto me. I told myself it didn't matter. I told myself I didn't care. But I did care. I cared deeply what people thought.
A friend of mine just heard he was broken. All these years he thought he was okay. Sure there were skirmishes, sure there were disagreements, but as long as he had family it was all good. He'd hoped, deep down, he was loved as much as he imagined; he'd hoped a childlike hope that those who'd failed his hurting heart so long ago failed because they were ill equipped, not because they just didn't care. "I did for myself for so long, I wanted to be able to say 'thank you' for something for a change." But there he was, high and dry. Alone.
The truth is, we have all been wounded, bruised, burdened or hardened because of the mere exercise of living in this world. No one escapes it. Even the kindest are betrayed. Even the healthiest people fall ill. Even the strongest have doubts. But do we choose to stay that way? Is the way to keep moving forward to merely take the hit?
2 Corinthians 4:7-10 says:
"We now have this shining light in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves."We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. "Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies."We once had a set of dishes. They weren't really microwaveable; but they didn't explode or anything, so we continued to nuke them. It got so you couldn't even take them from the shelf and set them gently on the table -- they would snap in two without warning. They had become so compromised, so damaged by conditions they were never meant to withstand, they could not be used for their intended purpose.
We were not created for a world full of lies and murders and hate and sorrow and disease. We were created to bring glory to our Creator and live to the fullest in a perfect world made just for our existence. Sin broke us. Sin compromised our physical, spiritual and emotional being. Sin corrupted our world. Sin brought things into our bodies and our lives we were never meant to withstand. But God...
Jesus is the way God fixed all that. Jesus, the Light of the World, is the One who, when He lives and reigns in our hearts uses all that damage to make His light shine. Through the cracks this world has inflicted on our lives, on our bodies, on our hearts, the light of Christ shines like a solitary flame through the pinhole of a black night. He brings beauty where only ashes remain. He redeems those the world says are unredeemable. He heals the broken. He sets prisoners free.
We do not have to remain where the world chooses to place us. We do not have to merely "take the hit." We can be filled, like fragile clay jars with the treasure of Jesus Christ, Author, Creator, and Sustainer of this world. Blessings!
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