Oh, if life were that easy.
Have you ever gone into the gym and felt the immediate need to “quit” feelings of jealousy, envy – just pure Hater-ade?
Crop tops and half-shirts exposing beautiful, firm six-packs. Chiseled calves and quads that say hello with every step. Biceps and well-defined shoulders connecting to backs who’ve never seen a day of back fat in their lives.
Wouldn’t the whole no-pain-no-gain thing go down much easier if you could simply borrow their muscles? No sweat, no effort – just exchange the fat and flab for sexy firmness.
Or how about when life gets rough, wouldn’t it be easier to just lean on someone else’s faith? “Hey, could you go pray, meditate, and do the work for me, please. Let me know when my problems are solved.”
The fact is, when it comes to putting in the work – humanity is generally lazy. Don’t be offended – I’m not a machine, Quitter Nation. I have to fight to quit complacency, laziness, thoughts of giving up or taking the easy way out just like the next human.
But here’s the truth I want to leave with you: God has given all of us a portion of Faith. It’s just like on Oprah’s Favorite Things – “You get some faith, and you get some faith, and you…” Everybody gets a starter kit!
“Kim, why are you harping on faith?” I’m glad you asked. Faith is what keeps your dreams alive when the hard times have you on life support – and hard times are guaranteed, my friends. But in the belly of Faith lies Hope to keep going when all else around you logically says, “give up, stop trying.”
And here’s the kicker – no one can use YOUR Faith but YOU! There will be some circumstances in life where NO-BODY can pray, pull, or drag you out – you’re gonna have to dig deep within the measure of Faith God has given you, get some dust on your own knees, let the tears mess up YOUR make-up, and fight your own way out! #Selah
So, what you do with your measure of faith matters, because faith has the power to grow. It’s a seed, a MUSCLE that, if you put it to work, it will flourish and produce lasting results that you will appreciate more, because you put in the work. You worked the muscle!
Bottom line: Quit depending on someone else’s faith muscle; we will never fortify our character by trying to capitalize on the hard work of others. The faith to produce results for your life is in YOU!
[A future post: How Marketing Your Faith For Sale or Rent Hurts Others…stay tuned.]
So, let’s move on from the dream of easy outs, gain-with-no-pain, and dodging our own work. There’s a six-pack for our own faith (and our bellies) just waiting to say, “I knew you could do it!”
Dear Love, I Quit! 