Sometimes, I just think we want to point and blame.
When we struggle to have patience, be kind, or love difficult people. When we face bankruptcy, a failed marriage, or a child who can’t or won’t understand. When we don’t like our house, our church, our spouse, or our job.
It is our hope that we can point to a sickness, a circumstance, a person, a feeling, an organization, a hope unrealized, a dream squashed and say this: That is why I can’t overcome.
Living like this would be all fine and good if it weren’t for one thing: the gospel.
When life gives you lemons, God wants you to squeeze the gospel out of them.
Have you ever heard of Gatorade?
Up until the 1960s, the football players at the University of Florida struggled with dehydration in the second half of their hot and humid games. Some researchers at the University came up with a drink that eventually came to be called Gatorade. When Florida beat Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl in 1967, a Georgia Tech player pointed to Gatorade as the reason. That statement went national and the rest is beverage history.
But what if those researchers hadn’t tried to make that drink? What if the players had pointed at the coaches and said it was their grueling practices that were to blame? What if the coaches had pointed at the administration and blamed them for pushing them so hard to create a quality program? What if administrators had pointed at the fans and said their demand for more games created the problem? What if the fans had gotten mad that the players faded in the second half and stopped going to the games?
No tickets sold, no games, no Florida football, no Gatorade. What a shame that would have been.
Blame robs life of its lessons. Writing off difficult circumstances because there is someone or something to blame steals our chances of seeing how greatness is born in the belly of despair.
Only by hydrating our souls with the gospel can we find all God has for us in life.
If we can thrive and find joy, love, purpose, and meaning in circumstances that seem dark and difficult, imagine how amazing life will be when God moves us beyond this moment into a season that is easier on us. Or it may be that this difficult season is the easiest one we will see for a while, and we will need to learn joy here so that the second half doesn’t kill us.
Gatorade on the inside of an athlete helps them to overcome physical limitations created by environment and exertion. The gospel on the inside of a Christian makes it possible to overcome the spiritual and emotional limitations created by life and people.
Assigning blame rarely takes the sting out of a painful experience. Maturity is looking our challenges straight on and asking this: “How can this make me better? What part of me is scared, or weak, or failing? What can I learn or change in myself to make this tragedy a testimony?”
Jesus took the blame and the shame so that we could live victorious. When we point at others and say they are the reason we can’t be more like Christ, we miss out on all He has for us. He is worthy of more than that.
It’s time for us to put the gospel on the inside and finish strong. We can overcome.
