choice

It's ten minutes till tomorrow, and I'm finally sitting down to blog. I've been putting it off for the past couple of evenings (HA! - "evening" would imply a decent hour such as 8:00 or maybe even 9:00 so I guess I should use the word "night" instead...) I've been putting it off for the past couple of nights, letting my busy-ness get in the way (story of my life), but goodness, the itch to write is there every night. So tonight, even though it is a stupid hour, I write.

This morning I got to go to breakfast with the ladies in my family. One of my dear sister-in-laws had a birthday and we were celebrating at the local cafe (which serves amazing biscuits and gravy, by the way). After we had consumed a bunch of deliciousness, my mom told a story that she had heard on the news. I didn't catch all the details, but from what I gathered a young man who had been born without arms had learned to play the piano using his stumps and his chin. 

People, playing piano with 10 fingers is difficult enough! I cannot imagine learning how to perform without them! 

The story of this young man reminded me of something I had come to realize quite a few years back. (It might not come out eloquently, but let's chalk that up to it being around the midnight hour and the fact that I've been painting with some strong fumes probably hasn't really helped....)

This world is full of sin. We chose that years ago along with Adam and Eve when they decided, as we would have, to eat the fruit. Because of that, our lives will be full of adversity. We might be born into it, or stumble into it, or get thrown headfirst into it, but we are going to experience it because this world is infected. 

But here is our key:

We must choose what we do with the adversity in our lives. 

We can let it drag us down, beat us up, and bring us to our breaking point. We can blame our poor choices and our life circumstances on what has happened in our past. We can continue to walk down a path of destruction because that's where we seem to be headed anyway. We can create excuse after excuse after excuse.

Or we can fight. We can strive to come out on top. We can push through the trials, trying to become better people, refined into what God has created us for. We can hang onto hope, the true hope that comes from knowing a God who is immeasurably stronger than we are, who is with us through everything, who only wants the best for His children. We can take those adversities and turn them into life-changing experiences, opening our eyes to the bigger picture that God has set before us. We can hold God's hand and trust Him as He directs us through the muck towards better things, even though we cannot see them.

I know trials are difficult to walk through. I've had a few myself. I know you falter. I've done the same. But ultimately, you have to decide how this imperfect world and all the garbage it throws at you is going to affect you. 

You can give up or learn to play the piano with your chin.

(You better believe I'm going to go search on YouTube for the video of this guy!) 

KC