Struggle

I've been thinking about struggle lately, and have come to the conclusion that struggle is a part of life.  It is a part of life because we are all imperfect people living in an imperfect world.  We struggle with dealing with prayers God has decided not to answer in our lives, we struggle with dealing with  personality conflicts, and we struggle with certain decisions we must make.  We struggle with plans we must make for the future, we struggle with the memories of past failures, and we struggle with issues we cannot change. 

Struggle, I believe, is a part of life whether or not we are living a Christian lifestyle.  In fact, I would venture to say that struggle is harder as a Christian because we have committed to living a certain lifestyle in front of the world, and we are being watched. Some are watching to see where our imperfections are, ready to point out when we lose our cool in certain situations or when we make the wrong decisions in other situations.  Many non-Christians believe that Christians should be perfect.  They do not understand that we are still human and will be until the day we die.  The difference is that as Christians, we should be striving after Jesus' word on how to live the Christ following life.  We are to be God-chasers, always growing, not keeping the same bad attitudes and bad  behaviors year in and year out, hoping no one notices; telling the world that 'this is just the way I am, take it or leave it.'   

I believe as Christians, when we mess up or when we do not handle certain situations properly; when we just do not have it in us to deal with certain personalities, we can and should talk to God about it.  I believe when He sees that we are trying and that we do not want to remain at the same level but that we want to chase after Him, trying every day to be more like Him, he will forgive us. 'Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.' Psalm 32:1. 

I believe the key as Christians is to realize that we will never be perfect, but that we serve a perfect God who knows we will never be perfect.  He knows that we need forgiveness, but it shouldn't be for the same bad attitude from 10 years ago.  We should be growing.  In fact, we should be growing in all of our relationships, not just the relationship we have with Jesus.  But that's another blog for another day.  Life is a struggle, but that's no excuse.  Let's continue to strive for that right attitude and that right response.  It's a struggle, but I know I will.