I was talking to a friend today and she told me that her dad complains all the time about how bad his life is.
He let his diabetes get out of control, which contributed to a heart attack. Things went down hill from there. Rehab was too hard so he quit, and now he can’t walk anymore. So, because of that he can’t make money to support his kids and his wife left him partly because he didn’t take care of himself.
My friend tries to tell him that if he would put in some hard work, take care of his diabetes, and do his exercises he wouldn’t be so bad off. She says to her dad, ‘If you need me to come help you do the physical therapy, even four times a week, I totally will! I’ll do the exercises with you! But if you’re not going to put in the hard work that we are all trying to put in… just stop complaining!
He says, “Okay, thank you. Maybe I’ll do that.”
He doesn’t do it and he keeps on complaining.
As I was listening I thought, “I better never become like that.”
I read some Colossians today, sincerely trying to give it a real go. I’ve had a hard time with Paul’s writings in the past so I thought,”Today, I’ll try a little harder.”
But he has all these run-on sentences and I couldn’t seem to get what he was saying. I kept getting distracted, other projects were pressing on my time, and it just wasn’t coming to me. So I just got frustrated and mad that nothing was working for me, still. And I gave up to work on other things, disappointed again.
Then I went to this prayer thing tonight at church and realized, “Dang. I’m already like my friend’s dad. And I’m not even old.”
I think God might be saying, I would love to help you with some big changes, Ross, changes that will bring you more life, but it may not happen unless you put in some serious, hard work to try.
Big changes happen with big tries.
And until you’re ready to do that, don’t be so quick to complain to me.
Raw Spoon, 1-6-16
