Often, companies (or just people) will put out motivational sayings; little quips to keep us going through whatever trial we find ourselves in. #IWILL is Under Armour's current motivational campaign. On their website, they have a few quotes and pictures of athletes doing some crazy things. One quote on the site is from Julio Jones, wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons, "When the ball's in the air, nobody brings it down but me. #IWILL". Another is from Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, "Every single day, you have to have a relentless will to be something greater than what you are. #IWILL". Last is from my favorite running back in the NFL, Houston Texans running back Arian Foster, "I mentally push myself through so much pain that, by gametime, it's second nature. #IWILL".
#IWILL has become a slogan for my own life recently, even though I haven't necessarily lived it every day. #IWILL is a very sincere callout to anyone who chooses to accept it. The life that we live is tough, and being a Christian sometimes makes this life even tougher. As a Christian, people around me will judge me because I choose not to party and get drunk. As a Christian, I believe in absolute right and absolute wrong, which makes me have to resist what we refer to as "sin". Now, I have an eternal joy and an eternal hope ("But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." - John 4:14). I have the hope that I will enter heaven, be given a new body, and will experience the beauty and power of God to the fullest degree. That's my hope. But I live in a backwards world where hope is laughable, and happiness is sometimes hard to come by. So how do we still maintain the mindset of joy in this fallen world? How do we continue to live in a world that we KNOW is going to laugh at us for having hope? Read the title again.
I WILL do this. I WILL love others. I WILL worship my God. I WILL. It's a challenge to everyone, but it's a challenge especially to me as a man of God. I'm reminded of the long quote at the end of Courageous: "You don't have to ask who will guide my family, because by God's grace, I will. You don't have to ask who will teach my son to follow Christ, because I will. Who will accept the responsibility of providing and protecting my family? I will. Who will ask God to break the chain of destructive patterns in my family's history? I will. Who will pray for, and bless my children to boldly pursue whatever God calls them to do? I am their father. I WILL!" Any man of God should have the cry of "I will" in their life. Sanctus Real's song "Lead Me" is chock full of the passionate cries of "I will". A wife calling her husband out to lead, his children calling him out to lead and be their hero, and the husband crying out to God and begging for the strength to lead them. I have my own battles to fight. I have a girlfriend who calls me out every day to be the spiritual leader of our relationship, and that is not something I can afford to take lightly.
Truth be told, I've been working on this blogpost for awhile. In fact, the last time I wrote on this specific post was about 2 months ago. #IWILL...do it later, I suppose. In fact, I still have 3 other blogposts that are waiting to be finished just because I apparently don't have the drive to finish them up. But this relates well to the warning that goes along with this whole thought, and one thing that we have to gracefully accept. #IWILL...fail. We live in this fallen world where nothing is perfect. No matter how much drive we shove into an activity, we'll always fall short if we're not striving toward the correct goal. Listen to Ecclesiastes 2:22-23: "What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless." Whoa. That's in the Bible?? The book of hope and joy?? Sure is...and the author? Unknown, but widely accepted as the wisest man in the Bible, King Solomon. So the wisest man in the Bible is saying that our toil, our work, is meaningless? Ecclesiastes 1:3, "What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?" However, throughout the book Solomon maintains a tone of sarcasm and pessimism, ultimately teaching us that all that we do is meaningless if we are not working for our Creator. Ecclesiastes 10:17-18, "Blessed is the land whose king is of noble birth and whose princes eat at a proper time—for strength and not for drunkenness. Through laziness, the rafters sag; because of idle hands, the house leaks." Solomon is telling us that all that we do is meaningless unless we purpose our actions for Christ.
But even though we purpose our actions for Christ, we will still fail, being fallible humans. And God knows it. God knows we will always be tempted, will always stray from Him, will always break His commandments and sin against Him. But Proverbs 24:16 states, "For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief." Even a just man, a righteous man, will continue to fail. I consider myself a man of God and a born again Christian, but I will continue to fall. The question is not IF I will get back up; Proverbs states that I will. The question is HOW I will get up. People that try to simply pull themselves up by their bootstraps are just doomed to trip and fall on their face again. Trust me, I've tried it far too many times. The way to get back up is by saying "#IWILL trust You, God." We can't pull ourselves up...we've been trying it since Adam's bite of fruit in Genesis 3. We need God. We need His love, we need His power, and darn it we just need to worship Him for all that He is and all He can do for us. But we have to do our part. God's not going to open the Bible, glue our butts to a seat and shove our nose in the book until we read it cover to cover. This is where we have to push ourselves. I've used this excerpt before, but this from the life of Winston Churchill: "A professional author said to [him] that he couldn't write unless the 'mood' came on him. The great statesman replied: 'NO! Shut yourself in your study from nine to one and make yourself write. Prod yourself! Kick yourself! It's the only way.'" God's going to meet us where we're at, but we have to meet Him too.
Everyone has something that is standing in their way of something they want. So get up and go get it! Myself, I've been missing a deep connection with God for awhile now. To say I haven't really prayed recently or even read my Bible in awhile would be an overstatement. But #IWILL. If I were to add a small slogan to add to Under Armour's website, here's what it would be at this stage of my life:
I have goals to achieve, I have a beautiful girl whose heart I need to fight for every day, and I have a mission from God. This is mine to bear, and I won't let anyone take my God-given duties. #IWILL
#IWILL has become a slogan for my own life recently, even though I haven't necessarily lived it every day. #IWILL is a very sincere callout to anyone who chooses to accept it. The life that we live is tough, and being a Christian sometimes makes this life even tougher. As a Christian, people around me will judge me because I choose not to party and get drunk. As a Christian, I believe in absolute right and absolute wrong, which makes me have to resist what we refer to as "sin". Now, I have an eternal joy and an eternal hope ("But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." - John 4:14). I have the hope that I will enter heaven, be given a new body, and will experience the beauty and power of God to the fullest degree. That's my hope. But I live in a backwards world where hope is laughable, and happiness is sometimes hard to come by. So how do we still maintain the mindset of joy in this fallen world? How do we continue to live in a world that we KNOW is going to laugh at us for having hope? Read the title again.
I WILL do this. I WILL love others. I WILL worship my God. I WILL. It's a challenge to everyone, but it's a challenge especially to me as a man of God. I'm reminded of the long quote at the end of Courageous: "You don't have to ask who will guide my family, because by God's grace, I will. You don't have to ask who will teach my son to follow Christ, because I will. Who will accept the responsibility of providing and protecting my family? I will. Who will ask God to break the chain of destructive patterns in my family's history? I will. Who will pray for, and bless my children to boldly pursue whatever God calls them to do? I am their father. I WILL!" Any man of God should have the cry of "I will" in their life. Sanctus Real's song "Lead Me" is chock full of the passionate cries of "I will". A wife calling her husband out to lead, his children calling him out to lead and be their hero, and the husband crying out to God and begging for the strength to lead them. I have my own battles to fight. I have a girlfriend who calls me out every day to be the spiritual leader of our relationship, and that is not something I can afford to take lightly.
Truth be told, I've been working on this blogpost for awhile. In fact, the last time I wrote on this specific post was about 2 months ago. #IWILL...do it later, I suppose. In fact, I still have 3 other blogposts that are waiting to be finished just because I apparently don't have the drive to finish them up. But this relates well to the warning that goes along with this whole thought, and one thing that we have to gracefully accept. #IWILL...fail. We live in this fallen world where nothing is perfect. No matter how much drive we shove into an activity, we'll always fall short if we're not striving toward the correct goal. Listen to Ecclesiastes 2:22-23: "What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless." Whoa. That's in the Bible?? The book of hope and joy?? Sure is...and the author? Unknown, but widely accepted as the wisest man in the Bible, King Solomon. So the wisest man in the Bible is saying that our toil, our work, is meaningless? Ecclesiastes 1:3, "What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?" However, throughout the book Solomon maintains a tone of sarcasm and pessimism, ultimately teaching us that all that we do is meaningless if we are not working for our Creator. Ecclesiastes 10:17-18, "Blessed is the land whose king is of noble birth and whose princes eat at a proper time—for strength and not for drunkenness. Through laziness, the rafters sag; because of idle hands, the house leaks." Solomon is telling us that all that we do is meaningless unless we purpose our actions for Christ.
But even though we purpose our actions for Christ, we will still fail, being fallible humans. And God knows it. God knows we will always be tempted, will always stray from Him, will always break His commandments and sin against Him. But Proverbs 24:16 states, "For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief." Even a just man, a righteous man, will continue to fail. I consider myself a man of God and a born again Christian, but I will continue to fall. The question is not IF I will get back up; Proverbs states that I will. The question is HOW I will get up. People that try to simply pull themselves up by their bootstraps are just doomed to trip and fall on their face again. Trust me, I've tried it far too many times. The way to get back up is by saying "#IWILL trust You, God." We can't pull ourselves up...we've been trying it since Adam's bite of fruit in Genesis 3. We need God. We need His love, we need His power, and darn it we just need to worship Him for all that He is and all He can do for us. But we have to do our part. God's not going to open the Bible, glue our butts to a seat and shove our nose in the book until we read it cover to cover. This is where we have to push ourselves. I've used this excerpt before, but this from the life of Winston Churchill: "A professional author said to [him] that he couldn't write unless the 'mood' came on him. The great statesman replied: 'NO! Shut yourself in your study from nine to one and make yourself write. Prod yourself! Kick yourself! It's the only way.'" God's going to meet us where we're at, but we have to meet Him too.
Everyone has something that is standing in their way of something they want. So get up and go get it! Myself, I've been missing a deep connection with God for awhile now. To say I haven't really prayed recently or even read my Bible in awhile would be an overstatement. But #IWILL. If I were to add a small slogan to add to Under Armour's website, here's what it would be at this stage of my life:
I have goals to achieve, I have a beautiful girl whose heart I need to fight for every day, and I have a mission from God. This is mine to bear, and I won't let anyone take my God-given duties. #IWILL
That's why I love the book of Ecc. It's soo real and def my fav book in the NT. Nice blog bro, I love hearing your thoughts. I know some of the issues you're dealing with. Keep holding on to God's unchanging hand.
ReplyDelete#IWILL pray for you
Btw, this wasn't THAT long! ;)