Momentum For Monday, January 17th 2022

“What if God had not been there for us?” (Psalm 124:2)

This will seem random but stick with me. I love Bear Grylls. If you've never heard of him, he was in the British special forces and made his way famous by a show that would drop him off in the middle of nowhere and he would teach people how to survive in the wilderness and find his way to safety/civilization.

He has eaten the nastiest things for survival. He's given strategy for every climate and life or death scenario. Even when it's absolutely disgusting, I still love to watch what he teaches. However, if I had to be honest, merely surviving in life sounds utterly dreadful and miserable to me, especially when Jesus came for abundant life (John 10:10). But even more, there's something to be said about surviving things that could and maybe should have overtaken you.

The surviving seasons usually don't get the glory or coffee talk conversations. When people ask how we're doing, "surviving" isn't usually an acceptable social answer (not if you want to remain in the ease of company of light-heartedness anyways). If I pushed for the honesty though, I bet you've survived some things that probably would be hard to open up about. We don't celebrate these types of happenings, but maybe we should start.

Some of you could write “how-to” survival guides for some of the most devastating things in life. Prison, betrayal, bankruptcy, abortions, adultery, cancer, death…those are just to name some of the few. The people who’ve been through it all and lived to tell about it are the ones we often long to hear from since they can give the best wisdom and comfort, right?

Now, there's nothing wrong with longing for the happy peaks of the mountain tops of life. We need those moments or seasons. However, it’s the valleys that make us though. The things that should have taken us out, but we survived because God didn't let them overtake our soul. He was with us the entire time caring over us and helping us through it all.

Whatever is ahead, just remember, you've made it through so far. And while you may not be celebrating the fact, we really are survivors- actually…more than conquerors according to Paul. With God, nothing can overtake us.

“No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”

(Romans 8:37)