Unleash Your BraveExemplo

Just in case we were hoping for a bar set so low we could step over it without so much as a strain, the Bible points us to Jesus. When it comes to modeling our pursuit of joy in the midst of difficulty, we are not given the option of easy and effortless. In fact, the writer of Hebrews points us beyond the man who lived the perfectly sinless life on earth but also joyfully endured the cross for those who have committed untold atrocities against him. 

That sort of challenge feels like asking me to pole vault over a fourteen foot moat full of alligators without a landing mat or pole. I’m sorry. What are the chances I’m going to get across alive much less joyfully? I haven’t the foggiest how to get started. 

The good news lies not in the challenge ahead but the person of Christ. We just need to fasten our energy and attention toward Jesus. 

You and I don’t need to figure it all out. Frankly, your trial or difficulty is not present in your life to determine whether or not you have faith, but so that you will KNOW it. Unless you and I encounter a few alligator-filled moats impossible to cross occasionally, we will never know of the Lord’s ability and willingness to get us across. Yes! You and I need to experience the alligators, get eaten half-alive, and come out on the other side barely breathing so that we can know our God can do it! 

The kind of God that can do THAT with you is nothing short of amazing! 

Your not knowing anything more to do, while looking squarely at a bunch of hangry alligators, than fixing your eyes squarely on Jesus is exactly the prescription needed for joy by reason of the badness. 

I don’t know what it will look like for you to fix your eyes on Jesus this side of your alligator pit. Maybe it involves spending more time in the Bible. Maybe you need to get alone with God in prayer. And maybe pray some more. It might look like banishing the “what if’s” that come from staring at the alligators rather than remembering all the times God has rescued your scrawny neck before. 

Fix your eyes, sweet friend. 

I can’t promise you won’t get across unscathed. Jesus didn’t. But, oh, will there be joy.