One Life

Sometimes being at church doesn’t automatically make you feel great. Some Sundays you just don’t care. Or you feel miserable. Isn’t it true? The music does nothing for your poor, mangled, angry soul, and the fact that everyone else is clapping away just makes everything worse.

I speak from experience. Okay, this Sunday.

Something that God was asking me to do I just couldn’t do. I sat in frustration and fear because I couldn’t do it. Oh how miserable am I! And how flippin’ mean is God! I can’t do it – I just can’t. I don’t care how nice the songs are, or how many nice promises are in the Bible, I’ve tried them all, but I still can’t do it. Woe is me.

And then it’s like God flips a switch.

Of course I can’t do it. Why should this be a surprise to me, or a source of despair? I seem to forget, too easily, that I could never do it. He doesn’t expect me to do it on my own, and He doesn’t want me to. The whole thing is supposed to be an exercise in walking and working more closely with Him, not drowning in misery all by my lonely self.

I have a suspicion that much of my leadership career will look like this. Leaders must do things that most people cannot do. But the truth is we can’t either. But He can – and He’s the only one who can. This is why He leads us. Please, please, remember you can’t do it! It’s much better to know from the start than to crash and burn in the middle. He is, and will forever be, the Only One Who Can.