A while back I was at a concert and heard the lead singer drop some great truth. The band wasn’t particularly Christian, and the point of the night was not to expose anyone to a reason for hope. But when you let the world come at you through the lens of your faith you find Truth from the most unlikely sources.
During their set he was doing a cool rock star move. He was letting the final notes/noise of a song ring out and was holding his guitar over his head. Then it slipped out of his hand falling to the stage, bounced, and fell another 3-4 feet off the stage onto the floor. Once he grabbed it and got back to the mic he gave this sage advice, “If you’re playing a show, don’t drop your guitar off the stage.”
He played it off well, but he was clearly frustrated and fighting with a guitar that looked to have damaged the cord input the rest of the show. And before their last song he said this, “I am so grateful for my life and what I get to do. For the past 30+ years I have had the opportunity to live my dreams and travel the world with my friends. I know that people wish that they could have my life, but I’m having a really bad day. It’s not just trying to play with a broken guitar, I’m just having an all-around bad day. But what you need to know and what I need to know, is that YOU ARE ALLOWED TO DO BOTH. Tomorrow is a new day! Another chance to live with gratitude. Don’t let the bad days win.”
As Christians it is easy to confuse our calling towards gratitude with a calling for appearing perfect. Unfortunately, only God is perfect, and things we do and call perfect can be putting on a front for other people. As we live in a world where gratitude and hard times can live hand-in-hand we must lean into these words from Paul, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
9 But [God] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Little ones to Him belong;
They are weak, but He is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me!