25 Days to Go: Up Your Level

25 Days: Up Your Level

Living with chronic illness and a rare degenerative respiratory disease offers pretty special and specific challenges. They test your strength in ways you never imagined possible. They make you question everything you ever thought you knew about life, love, friendships, health, success and even failures. They make you aware of time in a way that others simply can not grasp, unless of course they are dealing with their own long-term illness or something similar in nature. Whether it be physical, psychological, emotional, or spiritual, they deplete you of all of your strength. They can leave you stuck in moments of unimaginable pain, darkness, loneliness, and strife that feel like you will never conquer them in order to live in the lightness of life that you lived before your diagnosis.

I recently listened to a sermon by Pastor Steven Furtick, head pastor of Elevation Church that felt like it was tailor made for me. It was titled, “Not as Long as My Song.” The main premise is that nothing you are dealing with, no matter how hard, dark, or long, will be longer than your full song. These moments are just that, moments in a lifetime of moments. They can break us if we let them. They can define us if we let them. Or perhaps if we learn how to cope and go through such moments then they can simply be part of our full song instead of its entirety. The big question, however, is how to we get to the other side of these moments. It’s a big question indeed.

A starting point, at least for me, is to realize I am not in this thing alone. I am extremely blessed to have a very supportive network of friends and family. They do their best to be there for me in any way they can be. Yet even with their best intentions, there are times when they don’t get it, don’t understand it, and yes, when their love and support is not enough. Born out of a need to make things better, not see me hurting or scared, they often hinder the process of my being able to go through these trying moments fully. And I get it, I honestly do. But then how do I get through these difficult moments, the moments when I feel like I can not handle one more, teeny tiny thing? When I feel like I’m at my breaking point? When I feel like I’ve reached my level?  I turn to God. He gets it. He understands it. He will see me through it.

You may be asking, but how? It’s not always easy to have faith, but it’s always necessary. Pastor Furtick’s offered some fantastic pointers on how to make it through those times when you feel like you’ve had it, you can not take anything else. He says that God will be there for you in ways that you can never even begin to imagine. He truly never leaves us in the midst of a battle. He strengthens you far beyond anything you can do on your own. Pastor Furtick suggests that when you’ve reached that limit, that point where it feels like you’re about to break into a million little pieces, and are as empty as empty can be, then simply, “raise you limit and up your level.” He goes on to say that, “the level of your battle tells you something about the level that God is calling you to build.” He knows your full strength. Up your level. Raise. Your. Limit.

God will not fail you – ever. In fact, he offers very clear instructions in the Bible. Ephesians 6:12-17 tells us to put on the armor of God, so that we may take a stand {against the devil’s schemes}, be strong in the Lord, stand firm, take up the shield of faith, take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, and finally pray in the Spirit on all occasions. Those are some fighting words if I ever heard fighting words! They are a call for you to fight your battles, all of the battles of this life no matter how tall of an order that is, with God by your side.

Raise your limit because He knows you can get through whatever it is that you are struggling with. He knows you are stronger that you think you are. He knows you are more equipped to win the battles than you give yourself credit for. He knows these things because you are protected by His armor and shield. These seemingly insurmountable moments are just that. Moments in time that are nowhere nearly as long as your song. Sing your song in all of its ugly, beautiful, glory. Sing it at the top of your lungs because you upped your level, raised your limit, rose to the challenge, and won the battle!

Ephesians 6:12