After this weekend’s sermon, I was left feeling uncertain. Uncertain about how I received the message and honestly feeling a bit critical. Not unusual for me though these days. I have been a bit critical about a lot of things…thanks 2020. I felt like it was a simple, plain message that left many variables floating around and left more reason for me to oppose any use of the phrase, I can’t. It sounded like a poor parents attempt at encouragement while later that day becoming faced with all the no’s or things we literally can NOT do. No you can’t drink three juice boxes before dinner. No you can’t run into oncoming traffic. No you can’t jump off that ledge. No 2021 you can’t start fresh and pretend like the terribleness of 2020 is not still here. We still can’t do a lot of things. Our kids can’t go to physical school. Our kids can’t play on their school’s playgrounds if they are going to school. I can’t go to (my) church without being faced with a mandate to wear a mask. There are a lot of I can’ts that I can’t control. There are a lot of I cant’s that I am faced with daily.
So where did the sermon go wrong and why didn’t it resonate with me?
Here’s a short summary of it. The sermon was titled “I Can’t”. He started his sermon with an illustration of climbing a mountain, not just a simple hill, but a real mountain climbing mountain. He made the illustration that as the climb starts to get harder (or life starts to get harder) we start to say our I can’ts and then we start down the trail of excuses. I’d like to consider myself an athlete, so I know my I can’ts. For me, the I can’ts are a part of it — a part of daily training and simple living. Our bodies will naturally hit the I can’t moment at some point when we set out on a conquest, or training exercise or simply at 3:00 in the afternoon when we just want a nap . Pastor stated, “If there is a term that frames a life of excuses, it’s I can’t“. He “made perfectly clear” that there are some legitimate things we can’t do, but followed by saying in many cases we say I can’t, but what we should be saying is “I won’t try”. Here’s where my eyebrows hit the ceiling. In his illustration, those mountain climbers tried. They started on their journey to make the climb to the top. It is completely normal to be faced with I can’ts. We are faced with I can’ts everyday. I know he was trying to make a correlation between making excuses and the phrase I can’t, but the part where he lost me was in making the I can’ts a negative or “not normal” thing. I want to stop here and say, he did make some excellent points. I was just not ready to receive the application on my life just yet. The four highlighted points he made were 1. We need to name our mountain (or excuses) 2. Begin on a path we can conquer (start small) 3. Don’t climb alone and 4. Trust God with results. Backing his points mainly with verses from Exodus, reading along in the life of Moses.
I left it this weekend thinking —our Lord gave us I can’ts as a guideline (what about that?), I face I can’ts daily (I don’t understand a life without), I use “you can’t” daily (am I setting my kids up for failure?) along with many other critical thoughts. I decided to let it go, until this morning during my quiet time the thoughts came back up.
Along with the critical attitude lately, I have also dealt with bitterness. I haven’t felt like picking up my Bible and often projecting that bitterness on the Lord. This morning, with two of the kids back in school (virtual) and three more starting tomorrow, I decided to get back into my routine. I got up at 5am, went running with my group again, took a quiet shower and sat down to have a moment of reflection and reading. I was feeling a bit motivated and decided to pick up my Bible. It would be safe to say, I start most years off reading some sort of yearly Bible plan, yet never to finish. Today was no different, but I like to start things from the beginning; therefore, I started with January 1st…In the beginning. Although I had a bit of inspiration, my reading was still met with criticism. I read a verse (one I have read a hundred times), but today I posed a question to myself (and to Matt, but he didn’t quite get my perspective ha!).
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:16-17
Here’s my question: Why did God put something there that would cause a problem in the first place? Why would God give us something we couldn’t do? In my bitter state, I thought God was the one that caused the problem in the first place by creating an opportunity for failure. So don’t take it personally, Pastor, I criticized our Lord too.
Bring it home, Kristina! I am sure you are thinking.
What was I missing? What was the sermon this weekend missing for me? Why is the phrase I can’t such an aversion? Why is it also such a natural plateau? I prayed this morning for some sort of encouragement or remedy to my sour question and in finding it I think I also found the answers to my hesitation to the I can’t problem presented in this weekend’s sermon.
We were told we can’t from the very beginning. God gave us an I can’t, later followed by many I can’ts as a guideline for our lives.
Maybe that’s just it…
We need to embrace the I can’t moments because when we step passed them (or obey them) and keep going that’s where the change occurs. Refer to Pastor’s points above for practical application on how…yep there it is, I can now apply them to my life. BUT! We need to realize we are all faced with I can’ts and that is OK! Let them be in our lives. We live in a world of I can’ts and we have to sort through those while asking for discernment on the ones not to listen to.
We need the I can’ts in our lives. God gave us an I can’t for us to realize that we simply can’t without him. Our I can’ts open an invitation for God to say I can. My I can’t moment I hit in my marathon training is very much needed to show me I can overcome and to give me that burst toward the finish line. I welcome it every time.
The only thing I would restate from this weekend’s sermon is this phrase, “If there is a term that frames a life of excuses, it’s I can’t”. Again, we need the I cants, but that doesn’t mean we need the excuses or rather should leave room for excuses.
Hey friends! Kristina here! Thank you for reading along with my life here in my blog. I always welcome comments, perspective and insight. This post would be a good one to have an open dialogue on.
*Have you ever thought the same thing when reading Genesis 2? Why did God present an opportunity for failure in the first place by placing a tree in the garden that they couldn’t eat from?
*How do you feel about the phrase, I can’t?
Love you all and appreciate you.