CHOOSE YOUR HARD

One thing is for certain ... life is hard. 
Relationships. Health. Home. Church. Work. Day in, day out. Life's just hard. There is NO escaping it! 
No amount of money makes it stop being hard. No amount of drugs, alcohol, sex, or medication stops the hard. For Christians, no amount of religious activity or ministry stops the hard. 
Life is hard. Period. ... so ... what choices are we left with to function on this spinning sphere called Earth? Actually, my Friend, we only have ONE. We must consciously choose our hard. 
From a Christian/biblical standpoint ... because I am a Christ-follower ... I want to remind us that we have a sure, steady foundation. One on which we can anchor our lives ... even in the hard stuff of life ... come what may.

Recently, choose your hard became a mental theme, of sorts, as I've wrestled with many deeply personal issues. In His great kindness, the Lord has met me in the hard ... and I came to bring this to you. In hopes that you will set aside the time to be still. Be before the risen Lord and ask Him to reveal Himself to you. That's a scary prayer to pray! But it's a beautiful thing ... if you are willing to do what the old hymn says "Trust and Obey" ... there truly is no other way to be happy in Jesus ... but to trust and obey.

Relationships. They are our greatest earthly joy, and our greatest earthly sorrow. They're difficult to navigate on a good day. Why? because when you have two sinners who are doing life together - in whatever capacity it may be - there will be conflict. That's a given. But our response to the conflict is key. In His lovingkindness, the Lord has given us His prescription for living in "hard" harmony with others. All throughout the pages of Scripture, we see principles of living a lifestyle of forgiveness and deference to one another. The Lord, knowing we are a narcissistic bunch of folks, has also given us His prescription to live with the hard reality of broken relationships. We are to live a lifestyle of forgiveness ... surrendered to Him, humble, and open to restoration ... We can do it God's way, which is hard. Or ... we can do it our way ... which is harder. Choose your hard.

Health. The most obvious area of health is our physical health. Self-control isn't fun, nor is it easy. I know. I love cookies, candy, coffee, any form of caffeine ... But we must choose our hard if we desire to live with more productivity for the kingdom of God. Ironically, there are principles within sacred Scripture that address this. Passages concerning self-control ... and our bodies belonging to God ... or even those verses about how we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Our physical health plays a direct role in our mental and emotional health, as well. So ... we might as well look at our mental and emotional health next. What we feed into becomes the prevailing voice in our head. Once again, we must choose our hard. This particular area is very tender for me because I struggle with the effect of complex-PTSD ... but even in the struggles I deal with (which few know about and even fewer understand), truth still stands. Philippians 4:8 [NLT] says it well. "And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise." From the music and podcasts I listen to, to the tv shows and movies I watch to the books I read ... it all matters! And it ALL affects my mental/emotional health. It won't be the same parameters for everyone, but within the context of Scripture are principles that we can - and MUST - apply in order to help us navigate the hard mental battles we fight.
**Before moving to the area of spiritual health, I want -and need- to address the issue of medication as it pertains to mental health. Medication, I believe, is overprescribed. It is misused and abuse; however, we live in a very fallen world, and some of the effects of sin has led to mental health issues ... I take medication to help lessen the severity of some very real physiological symptoms. This is needed, for now. The medication does NOT eliminate my responsibility to actively take thoughts captive. Nor does the medication eliminate my responsibility to meditate on what God says to me in His word. Is it hard? ABSOLUTELY! Especially on days when I'm struggling with an overactive nervous system ... but I must choose my hard ... be obedient to Scripture asking God for help or fight the physical/mental symptoms in my own strength. The choice is mine ... and in your life, the choice is yours. Choose your hard.** 
One final area of health that I want to look at is our spiritual health. As with any relationship, we have to nurture our relationship with the Lord. Why? Because to love Him, we MUST know Him! To say we love Jesus without spending time with Him is utterly ridiculous! In John, we see that to love God is to obey Him (see John 14:23). If we consistently/habitually disobey God's word, with little to no thought about it, how can we say we love God? Is this a hard truth to face? YES! But so is living in habitual sin and living a lie. Choose your hard. 

Home. Church. Work. Three different places that often have us struggling to be the same across the board. What do I mean? We act one way at home ... usually our worst. We act another way at church ... usually our best with all sorts of religiosity spewing forth. And we act another way at work ... usually it's some smashed up version of our home and church life personalities combined. Why do we live like this? Scripture is our authority for ALL of life ... so why is this even an issue? I'm afraid that the American church has a lot to repent of because this is a PLAGUE! We are so accustomed to wearing masks and being phonies that it's going to take us being willing to take a deep, hard look at our individual lives and with the Holy Spirit bringing genuine revival for this to change. Is this hard? Unbelievably! But so is being a fraud! Jesus and His glory are worth the change! Choose your hard.

As I work within one ministry and have connections to missionaries and Christians that span this entire globe, this has been burning within me ... not just as a communal conviction ... but it's gotten personal over the last few weeks. And the fire was set ablaze last week as I received counsel on some life things. We, in the American church, know NOTHING about persecution ... The American church is dividing over music styles and dress codes. People are getting offended because someone didn't speak or they went to another small group. What nonsense is this?! All the while, the church in North Korea, China, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Cuba, and other such places are growing ... some places, these churches are growing exponentially! What's the difference? Unity in choosing the hard.

That's not happening in the American church. 

May we seek the LORD's face on behalf of our nation, yes. But may we also seek His face as we CHOOSE OUR HARD for His eternal glory and great name! 
He is worthy! 

~A fellow pilgrim~