Hold On

First of all, if you haven’t already started singing “Hold On” by Wilson Phillips, I don’t know that we can be friends. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s move on, shall we?

I love reading. I can really read anything, but nothing gets me like a good love story, particularly forbidden love. I read Romeo and Juliet in 7th grade, and from there, I was hooked. In fact, I faked being sick one day so I could stay home from school and read Twilight. Needless to say, I was “miraculously” healed when my mom got home, and I didn’t miss another day for the rest of the year. There is just something so magical about books. I love being given creative license to envision the characters however I want. I love picturing how they interact in their conversations and picking up on tones in the dialogue that help you capture the true meaning of the story. Dialogue is my favorite to read. It’s so much fun to try to envision the conversation taking place. This is why reading whole chapters made up of only narrative,  with absolutely no dialogue,  is almost enough for me to put the book down for a bit, if not altogether. But, it’s what happens in between the dialogue, the narrative,  that’s so important! That’s where you really learn who the characters are and where the story is going. There is so much vital information in the action and the narrative.

This is so similar to the not so fun parts of life. Life can suck. And it usually starts to suck right after an amazing event or season. So you’re coming out of this amazing season and you’re pumped and ready for what’s next, and then BAM! Life’s like, “Oh! You’re really happy? Let’s fix that- you’re laid off!” Or you go through a bad breakup or divorce. Or your car breaks down. Or you have a loss in your family. You should get it now- there’s a lot of storms that can come and rain on your parade, and these storms tend to not be very fun. However, what they lack in fun, they make up for in experience. There is something important waiting for you in that stormy season, or God wouldn’t allow you to go through it. He may not cause the storm, but He can absolutely use it to better you. Often times, the information and experience gained in the season of storms is necessary for the following season of sunshine- just like the narrative of a book. If you were to only read the dialogue of the book, you would be extremely lost. That’s the same with seasons of life! If you were to just jump from good season to good season, you would miss out on so much knowledge!

One of mine and my husband’s favorite TV shows is The Office. He has seen it about 9 time through, and I’m working on number 4. It’s one of the funniest, wittiest, most stupid and awkward tv shows you will ever watch, except for season 1. Season one is mostly just awkward and kind of horrible. Honestly, how it got renewed after season 1, I’m not quite sure, but thank God it did! I mean, it’s not that is completely horrible, it’s just boring. In fact, 4 years before my husband and I got together, another friend of mine tried to get me to watch it and I only watched 3 episodes and was done. So for four years, FOUR YEARS, I was missing out on one of the greatest comedies ever all because of ONE SEASON! I was so caught up on how bad and boring that season was, that I refused to keep pushing through it to witness the comedic genius that is The Office. We do this all too often in life. We approach a hard season, dip our big toe in the water, and immediately back off because it’s not what we expected. We get so caught up in the stormy season and how uncomfortable it is, that we retreat rather than pushing forward to see what God has for us on the other side! Even more so, we miss out on the vital information that awaits us in the storm! While season one of The Office may not be the most exciting or funny season, there is important information in it that you need to get in order to understand the other 8 seasons.

We see something similar to this in the Bible in Matthew 14:22-33. You are probably very familiar with this story- It’s the one where Jesus walks on water. I guess you could say it’s pretty popular. A little background on this story- Jesus and his disciples have just finished feeding the 5,000. They are pumped. They are like, “Heck yeah, I’m totally with Jesus. This dude just took a few fish and loaves of bread and fed 5,000 people- not including women and children, He’s the bomb.” The Bible says in verse 22, “As soon as the meal was finished, he insisted that the disciples get in the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he dismissed the people.” So, as soon as this amazing event was done, Jesus told the disciples that they needed to go ahead because he needed to rest and pray. It goes on to say in verse 24, “Meanwhile, the boat was far out to sea when the wind came up against them and they were battered by the waves.” We can kind of parallel this to our lives. As we move from one season to the next, a storm arises and we freak. We’re like “Oh my gosh, God, where are you?! You sent me into this next season and now it’s storming??? How could you?!” But, what’s so cool about this story is Jesus was with them in their darkest hour, and Peter stepped out in faith and walked on water. We have all been taught the lesson of “not taking your eyes of Jesus or you’ll drown”, but I think there is an even better lesson in this verse. The response the disciples give in verse 32 and 33 after seeing Jesus and Peter walk on water makes me giggle a bit. 32-33 The two of them climbed into the boat, and the wind died down. The disciples in the boat, having watched the whole thing, worshiped Jesus, saying, “This is it! You are God’s Son for sure!” They said, “You’re the Son of God for sure”, like they hadn’t had enough proof before that! As if they hadn’t seen him cleanse the leper, heal the centurion leader, heal Peter’s own mother, cast out demons, and for goodness sake, they just saw Him feed 5,000+ people!

We do this so very often in our own lives. We have seen God do amazing things in our lives, but when times get tough, we doubt that He will show up. It’s like we forget all of the other things Has done because our focus in on the severity of the storm. But, if we would just shift our focus back to God, we would see that He is so much bigger than any storm we face! My pastor always says It’s not over until God says it’s good. So if the situation you are in isn’t good, then your story isn’t over! Don’t give the enemy permission to end your story on a bad note. You cannot give up just because this chapter isn’t as good as the others. You have to give God the chance to make it good! Like the song says:

Some day somebody’s gonna make you want to

Turn around and say goodbye

Until then baby are you going to let them

Hold you down and make you cry

Don’t you know?

Don’t you know things can change

Things’ll go your way

If you hold on for one more day

Can you hold on for one more day

Things’ll go your way

Hold on for one more day

You just have to hold on and keep fighting and pushing! Take advantage of this storm. Learn all you can from it, and watch God show off in your life by turning it all around for you.

 

XOXO

ELK