Through It or In It

 

As a former English teacher, I remember planning out creative ways to help students remember different parts of speech, notably, prepositions. For those of you who may have hit the snooze button during your own prepositional tutorial, prepositions normally proceed a noun and provide a relationship to another object. "The boy, on the bicycle, rode by my house." The preposition on explains where the boy was in relationship to the bike, he was on it. So, if you did happen to miss out on your own educational pursuit of prepositions, possibly this introduction to today's Flat Tire Thought may suffice. Beyond that, this week's thought for the week does deal with two prepositions and both are directly related to where you are in relationship to what is going on in your life right now. Today I am posing the question, "Are you living through "it" or are you living in "it". 

 

I suppose we should first define "it" since I have placed a certain degree of emphasis on this tiny pronoun. "It" can be whatever "it" is that you are experiencing in your life. I've always said you may be just coming out of "it", headed towards "it", or you may be smack dab right there in the middle of "it" as you read today's message. "It" may have a beginning and end mark, or it could be that "it" is something that you may have to endure for an extended period of time. "It" could be something that unless God intervenes and performs a miracle in your life you will deal with "it" for the rest of your life. Back to my previous question, the crux of the matter isn't about the duration of whatever "it" is, but more so where you are living in relationship to whatever "it" is. 

 

"It" as a pronoun can be the subject of a sentence, "It was as big as an elephant." So, for our purpose today we will utilize "it" as the subject of what you are living through or in. "It" represents something of significance that is impacting your life in an adverse way. "It" could be a health issue, "it" could be a relationship matter, "it" could be a financial situation, or "it" could be any of a plethora of issues or situations that you are dealing with in your own life. Regardless of what "it" is, today I am asking you to reflect on how you are dealing with whatever your "it" is. 

 

God has a plan for your life, Jeremiah 29:11 assures us "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." God's plans are not going to always line up with what we had planned out for our lives, many times what happens to us would never have been something we would have put into our plans if we were the sole narrator of what happens to us in life. I don't think any set of parents would have written out a plan that would have their child be born deaf, blind, and mute, but Helen Keller most likely would never have inspired and touched the lives of so many people had she not been handed exact set of conditions in her life. Joseph would not have risen to the position of second in command in Egypt if it were not for the series of events in his life that journeyed the spectrum of being sold into slavery by his brothers, cast into prison for a crime he didn't commit, and then enduring his prison term long beyond what he should have. Yet it all came down to how Joseph thrived in the hand he had been dealt. At the end of Joseph's odyssey in Genesis 50:20, Joseph assures the same brothers that sold him into slavery that "You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people." To coin an old phrase, Good took some lemons in Joseph's life and turned them into some sweet lemonade!

 

Circling back to our original question, I would ask you to reflect on your own position in relationship to what is going on in your life. Are you living through "it", standing still waiting on God to miraculously heal your infirmities or cast aside the adversity in your life that you believe is holding you back from fulfilling your life's destiny? Or, are you living out the best life you can live while God's plan is being fulfilled as you live in "it"? As I stated in the previous paragraph, God has a plan for your life, it is your choice to live through "it" and just go through the motions of living and breathing, or you can make the choice to live in it and seek out what God has in store for you. "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28." I choose to live in this life God has given me to live, and I will attempt to fulfill whatever plans God has for me to live out. What will you choose today? Will you live through ups and downs of life, or will you live in those very same ups and downs and impact the world you live in for the God who made you just the way you are?

Coach Carter