You're Going to Make It After All!
Let me tell you what I believe today …
I believe you really are going to make it after all!
Perhaps you are too young to remember these iconic lyrics from the Mary Tyler Moore show in the 1970’s …
“Who can turn the world on with her smile?
Who can take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?
Well, it's you girl and you should know it
With each and every movement you show it
Love is all around
No need to waste it
You can never tell
Why don't you take it?
You're going to make it after all!”
The reason I believe this exhilarating philosophy is not because of the catchy lyrics to a TV sitcom theme song … but I believe it simply because of the God whom you serve.
I don’t believe it because someone has smugly informed you that they are sending positive thoughts your way … but I believe it because I believe in the power of prayer to a Father who cares!
I actually don’t believe it because of any extraordinary gifts or talents that you might possess … but I believe it because I know that you serve the greater God!
Nothing is too difficult for our God, so you are going to make it after all!
The power of God that is vibrantly and actively alive inside of you is by far greater than any problem that you face … than any circumstance that comes your way … or than any unkind person who torments you.
Friend … you actually are going to make it after all!
The older I become … and the more I understand about life this side of heaven … the more convinced I am that living with hope and joy is the most powerful choice I can make on any day of my life.
I firmly believe that actions follow attitudes … so I must make sure that my attitudes are in obedience to the power that works within me.
If I determine to be the most joyful and the most hopeful person alive at my moment in history … then the words that I speak and the actions that I exhibit will follow my chosen heart attitudes.
As I speak the language of hope and as I exhibit the stirring song of joy, it is in that life-changing choice that suddenly … that is who I become!
I become a woman whose very DNA has absorbed the hope and joy of my belief system!
I don’t know what has you bent all out of shape today, but I can tell you this … you ARE going to make it after all … so deliberately embrace hope and intentionally exhibit joy!
I am not privy to your personal offenses … your lifetime disappointments … or your unanswered prayer requests … but let me tell you this … so lean in and listen:
The way out of your emotional pain is to strategically guide your life with the compass of hope and joy!
When the world crashes in around you … take a deep breath … set your eyes on the Father … and begin to sing!
Never allow the pain of temporary circumstances to rob you of your ability to sing.
Serenade your pain with the triumphant song of hope!
Escort disappointment out the door with a melodious stanza of joy!
What did Paul and Silas do when they had been beaten and locked up in a Roman prison cell?
These two uncommon men did what any man or woman should choose to do at the very worst moment of life … they sang a song of worship to their mighty God!
The chains that held their feet in stocks did not have the power to inhibit them from raising their voices to heaven!
As Paul and Silas sang in the inky darkness and in the destitute cold of their circumstances, a miracle happened!
Their chains fell off … the prison doors flew wide open … and their prison guard invited them to his house.
That very night, an entire family was saved because Paul and Silas chose to sing the song of hope and joy.
Paul and Silas could have made a different choice.
They could have chosen to magnify their circumstances rather than magnifying the lyrics of the song that was richly growing in their hearts.
But they didn’t.
They could have decided to whine, complain and to throw in that infamous towel!
But they didn’t.
These two bleeding and cold prisoners certainly “deserved” to allow their emotions to rage and their pain to be expressed.
But what you deserve to do and what you should do are two different things, indeed!
The song that you have been given to sing is not merely a catchy tune … but it is a powerful anthem of promise and peace!
You were made to sing at the midnight hour … you were made to sing in the constraints of prison … and you were even made to sing when life has unfairly beaten you up.
You were made to sing!
You were made to sing a song of joy and hope … and the world is waiting to hear your song.
Let me cut to the chase here … are you ready to be convicted?!
There is a world in pain because many of us would rather whine than sing the song we were created to sing.
“Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
And sustain me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners will be converted to You.” – Psalm 51:12 &13
You were made to sing, my friend!
So dust off your vocal chords … retrieve that old choir robe that has been hidden on the closet floor of discouragement … and open the hymnbook of your heart to that familiar page that declares,
“Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!”
And while you are singing that great hymn of faith, just for fun, you also might want to add a chorus or two of “You’re going to make it after all!”
Thanks for listening to my heart this week. As you know by now, my heart is truly not a perfect heart, but it is a heart that is filled to overflowing with gratitude for the life I have been given and for the people who walk with me. And, it continues to be a heart that is relentlessly chasing after God and all that He is!