Can we talk about living victoriously for a minute? Because we toss around that phrase, or some variation of it, a lot.
Victorious Living
Life Victorious
Victory
And it sounds so good, so attractive, so goal-worthy. Who doesn’t want some of that? To work towards that? To run towards that?
But let’s apply that concept for a minute.
Let’s turn up the heat.
The first few steps out of defeat are SO HARD because you’ve got to move your feet, your permanently paralyzed feet. You’ve got to hear Him say “Get up, take up your mat, and walk.” And you’ve got to do it.
That takes courage. That takes faith. That takes a MIRACLE.
And then, you’ve got to start overcoming. One obstacle after another. Big obstacles that get bigger. Sometimes, they take you down for awhile. Sometimes you get a little stuck. But by and by, you’re getting stronger. You’re getting richer. You’re getting wiser. And you’re tasting it. You’re tasting this victory thing. And it’s good stuff. You’re moving to the top of the rainbow. You’re flying high. You’re giving back. You’re the winged victory incarnate.
And then you’re not.
It doesn’t usually happen all at once.
It’s usually a series of things you can’t help.
You get tired.
You get sick.
Your finances get drained.
You lose a loved one.
And all those changes, those changes you believed God led you to make, you now find unsustainable in the circumstances.
And you start to wonder why he led you out of defeat in the first place. Why, you wonder, did I climb the rainbow, the hope, if it only leads right back down?
Why is it that every arc has one crest, and two points?
And who is this God, this God who exercises kindness? And justice? And righteousness?
Really?!
So you cry. You cry ‘til there is nothing left to cry. You take antidepressants if you can get them. This struggle is real. Too real.
You keep trying to hang on. To your strength. To your riches. To your wisdom. To your victory. Because wasn’t that what He was leading you to? Wasn’t that it?
So faced again with defeat, with death, you fight on fumes and fatigue.
And you begin to hear the word “surrender.”
And you wonder what that means: surrender.
Isn’t it the opposite of victory? Isn’t it ceding to defeat?
And it gets kind of deep in here, in this space with you and this word surrender and the God of the universe.
Because where it will take you, only He can say.
To unknown lands far away from your home?
Up the hill with your son and knife in tow?
To the temple with a weaned child to dedicate forever?
To pregnancy unwed?
Through death itself?
So it is you, and this God, and this idea of surrender, and it is 3 a.m., and you don’t know what to do.
Because he’s shown you that you can walk when you thought your legs didn’t work.
And he’s shown you that you can climb to the top of a rainbow and gain wisdom and strength and riches to boot,
But can you trust him?
Can you trust him with life itself?
With more than life?
With your child?
With your loved one?
And you begin to realize that the only way to have this thing:
this victorious living,
this life victorious,
this winged victory,
is to walk with the one who conquered death,
Even if He leads you through it.
Can you trust Him?
The question blows in the wind, and while you ponder, patiently he holds your hand.
This is what the Lord says
“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
or the strong boast of their strength
or the rich boast of their riches,
but let the one who boasts boast about this:
that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,”
declares the Lord.
Jeremiah 9: 23-24
Eric Sizemore says
Beautiful and edifying!