"If I can just get this one thing done, or if I can
just get passed this one difficult area, or if I can just achieve this area of
success, everything will just level out and be easier and life will be smooth
sailing…"
Have you ever thought that? I have. A lot.
Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. The truth is,
everything we do today is preparing us for a harder tomorrow.
I mean, it starts the moment we are born! We spend the first year learning how to do more, be more
independent and become more mobile. We enter the world learning and yearning to
reach the next level: infancy to childhood, childhood to adolescence,
adolescence to adulthood, and on and on.
Can you imagine if a three year old decided they had
reached their potential because they could feed themselves and go potty on their
own and walk and talk? And so they decided they were done doing
more or learning any new harder things.
It’s ridiculous and sad to even think about that!
But that’s really how grown-up people think a lot!
When we adopt that type of thinking we are really saying that we want to stop
growing, that we want to level out. And that’s not God’s goal. God is
constantly pushing us to grow, and to change.
He wants us to learn those better things because it’s
better for us!
I have witnessed this in my own life is some big ways in recent
years. Those ways were never easy. I have referred to them sometimes as growth
spurts, or growing pains. It’s like that same three year old toddler cutting
new teeth... Anyone who has ever had a teething baby knows that the process is
not a happy one. It’s uncomfortable for them and painful at times and they get
whiny and don’t sleep good and they slobber SO MUCH.
It’s messy and painful.
But the end result is a toddler who can now consume
bigger and harder foods. They leveled up from soft mushy food and baby milk to
the more mature stuff that their growing body needed in order to thrive.
Friend, that’s what God is always working in our lives.
He desires for us to grow up, level up, in our faith and become more and more
like Him. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:11, “When I was a child, I spoke
as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a
man, I put away childish things.”
We were not created to stay, or live, in a lower level.
It can also be compared to a video game. The gamer’s goal
is to get to the next level, to gain helpful tools and power along the way that
will assist them in that next level, and to ultimately reach the finish line. Who plays a
video game just to replay the same level over and over again?
No one.
We were made to level up. And in each level of life God
provides tools and fuel and friends that can help us complete that level and assist us in the next level and give us fuel to keep going.
If you are in a hard level in your life right now that is
so challenging and feels like it is lasting forever, please know you CAN get
through it! I know the deep frustration that comes from repeating the same
mistakes and feeling stuck in a hard level. But I also know that God wants you
to get through it and He provides what you need in this level to prepare you
for the one to come. If you feel like you keep tripping up, try to change your approach. What
are you missing? What tool is there to help you that you have overlooked? Who
is there to give you a boost? Where do you need to pause and refuel? And what
is a weak spot that keeps knocking you down?
There are some tools that you can ONLY get by going
through the hard level. God didn't lead you into that level to defeat you; He
led you to it to prepare you for the next one!
I heard God speaking deep into my spirit recently, with a
gentle voice and an outstretched hand, “Welcome to the next level.”
I am only just now learning that this is both a
celebratory promotion and a terrifying challenge into the unknown!
A few years ago, I stepped out of a hard level and
mistakenly thought I was entering an easy phase now. I thought because I had beaten
the last level, and the challenge was conquered, this new level would be a
breeze! I was so disappointed, and frankly heartbroken, to, instead, encounter
a new level of hard. I admit I felt defeated for a while because I was just plain tired,
and it often felt too hard. New challenges and new terrain and new enemies
sucker-punched me because I entered that level with incorrect expectations and very low energy. It
took me a long time...too long... to realize that the hard level I had just left was
preparing me for this new level.
I think our mistaken expectations of what growth looks
like and requires often feels a lot like being sucker-punched.
It’s like the
teenager who can’t wait to get out of High School because they just know life
will be so much easier (insert raucous laughter here!)...then reality hits them
and they realize they just leveled up!
We often have grand expectations of ease and beauty in the
next level, if we can just get there! Don’t get me wrong - there is plenty of
beauty along the journey, and there are joyful surprises mixed in along the
way. But our focus changes when we believe every step we take is preparing us
for the steps we’ll have to take ahead.
Forty years into my journey, I am just now learning to
adjust my expectations. When I do, though, I can be thankful for the tools and
struggles in this level because I know they are going to help me in the next
level. Much like that drooling teething baby, it may be messy and painful and I will
probably whine and complain from time to time. But when I don’t have to eat pureed
food any longer I will be so glad that I didn’t stay in the baby level! I am
sure the children of Israel thought once they actually made it to the Promised
Land, they would level out and life would be easy! But the first thing that
happened was battle and struggle and new enemies. God used their history, and
every step of those 40 years, to prepare them for the next level. He does the
same today with you and I.
So get going, keep moving, stop looking back. Look
for the tools and fuel and friends that are supplied in your current level. And soon
enough, you’ll hear God’s gentle words welcoming you into the next level, which
is always one step closer to Him!
