I’m screwed up. Just like you are. Yes I just said you’re screwed up and I might not even know you…it’s okay, you know it’s true. We’re all trying to figure out this whole thing called life. Lets stop pretending we have it all together. We don’t.
For some reason, when we become Christians we often feel like we have to have it all together because we have Jesus. What kind of people who know they’re messed up are going to want to follow a God whose followers ‘have to be perfect’. Jesus died because we’re so messed up. That’s serious stuff. We desperately need Him because He is better. The story He is writing with our lives is better than anything we could dream up and live on our own.
What does this look like?
To the friend who is walking out of a homosexual lifestyle,
he is proving that Jesus is better than his desires.
To the girl who cuts as an emotional release,
every time she resists that temptation she is proving that Jesus is better.
To the sex addict who seeks to abstain until marriage,
it’s because Jesus is better.
To the girl who fights an eating disorder,
every bit of that fighting proves Jesus is better.
To those who struggle with depression but choose to keep their heads up and engage,
Jesus is better.
To those who don’t let worry, anxiety, and all the ‘what if’s’ dictate their decisions in life,
Jesus is better.
To those who are tempted and struggle with sin (e’rbody),
lets all choose to live in a way that shows Jesus is better than anything those temptations offer.
We are not our struggles, lets not give them the freedom to dictate our lives, that should be Jesus’ job as we walk in freedom.
I was recently talking to a friend about shame, temptations, struggles and just feeling kind of bogged down with life. Then my friend said something that drastically changed my perspective. She said (something like this),“But what I love about your life is that it’s a story about how Jesus is better. The lifestyle you’ve chosen, the struggles and temptations you fight, the decisions you make, the jobs you have, they all point to a story about how Jesus is better than your flesh and your desires. You choose obedience.”
I don’t tell that story to be prideful, but rather as a picture of how my mindset is often focused on my struggles and not as much on God’s goodness, redemption, and what He is doing through all of it. I too often see the pain and not the story that’s being written to God’s glory. I focus too much on how hard the fight is instead of remembering that merely having the fight instead of ‘giving in’ glorifies my Savior. I forget that God is fighting alongside me every step of the way and that it is only with Him that we fight the battles of life well.
This has brought me to a more intentional mindset lately of striving to live life well and obediently ‘because Jesus is better’, and the story He is writing is greater than anything I could ever write.
We may not always get to pick our struggles, but we do get to choose what we do with them. We may fall, we may fail, but how we get back up and keep fighting will show where Jesus stands in our lives.
How does your life show that Jesus is better? What needs to change?
Feel free to comment and let me know your thoughts 🙂
Live well,
Crystal
Financial update: I am currently 48% funded! Thank you so much to everyone who’s given, you have been such a blessing. If you would still like to donate feel free to do so by clicking the ‘support me’ tab up on the left. Anything is appreciated!
Departure update: January squads will meet in Atlanta on January 6th for a few days of continued preparation and our departure is set for January 9th! If you would like to follow the journey just click the ‘update alerts’ link up on the left!
