Day 2496 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Philippians 4:13 NIV

We've been discussing a few different things over the past few days but they all have one requirement in common. Whether it be leadership, being different, making changes, or just about any other challenge in life, they all require a willingness to try. And that's where we start struggling. Somewhere along the way can't became not only a reasonable option but our standard excuse whenever we come up against something difficult.

We've gotten it in our minds that we can't be leaders in our family, among our friends, or in our community. As we talked about recently we think we're too young, too old, too poor, too weak to be leaders. So we just wave that opportunity right on by because we think we can't do it. We can't step out there and offer to help lead others because it's too hard and too scary. So we settle for can't.

We've accepted this idea that we can't change. We're too used to how we've always done things. We're too used to the choices that we've always made. We find complacency more appealing than effort because we figure that if we can't do something different then why try? We don't think we have the strength to see it through. We don't see how we can make this time different than all those times before when we've tried to change only to fail. So we settle for can't.

We've bought the lie that we need all these worldly things to be happy or to find our meaning and purpose in life. We chase after everything everyone else has their sights set on thinking that whoever achieves it or attains it is the one who finds the joy and fulfillment. Whoever has the most is the most important. Whoever earns the most is the most valuable. And so we don't understand how to live without envy and greed and material desires. We aren't able to break free from the sparkle and shine of worldly things. So we settle for can't.

We're afraid to let go of what we have or move on from what's good enough. We afraid that if we lose something then we may never find anything to take its place. What if we cut something or someone loose that we know isn't necessarily the best only to be left with a hole that we can't fill with anything else? What if we end up disappointed? We don't know how to live differently than we have. So we settle for can't.

I hope you see the pattern here. Can't. We keep on reverting back to this lie that we can't do something because we don't know how to do it. We may have never been leaders before. We may have never experienced radical change before. We may have never tried something new or gotten rid of a worthless anchor in our lives before. But just because we haven't does not mean that we can't. But that's exactly how we've learned to see it.

Friends, in a couple of days we're all going to gather with our friends and family and celebrate the reason that we can. We're going to celebrate our excuse breaker. We're going to celebrate the birth of Christ who came to show us the way to be a leader, to be different, to leave this world and its ways behind in exchange for a life of true purpose and meaning. Jesus Himself tells us in Matthew 19:26 that "with God all things are possible."

There is no room for can't in our faith. Can't is just a lie, a hurdle, an obstacle that we set up for ourselves to keep from having to try. Can't is just an excuse that we lean to avoid difficulty and challenge. Make no mistake, we can be leaders. We can change for the better. We can leave things behind. We can learn to live differently than the world is living. We can set our sights on things above rather than on things of this earth. So I guess that leaves us with one thing that has to be considered:

Do you want to?

#LeaveNoSoulUntold