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If You Cannot Do What You Want

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If you cannot  do what you want, do what you can.

 

This morning I woke up thinking how great it would be to run on the beach.  It didn’t happen for a number of reasons.  Logistically, I live in the midwest and not anywhere near a beach.  Experientially I know that if I want to go hiking tomorrow, I should preserve what is left of my SI joint, today.  So I took a walk instead.  

 

If you cannot do what you want, do what you can.

 

My kids went with me which was a plus.  Well it was a plus until they decided they needed a drink and we had neglected to bring one.  They did not want to wait until we got home to get a drink, but we had no drink.

 

If you cannot do what you want, do what you can.

 

I am glad we were able to start the day with some fresh air and a fresh start.  It is easy to get bogged down by the sadness, the injustice, the hardship, the pain, of the world we live in.  How I want to fix it all.  And though it would be nice if one person could change it all for the better all at once, change is for the most part incremental, and the problem of sin will remain as long as the world stands.  Still, you as one person are likely capable of changing one thing, that will have a positive effect on another.  

 

If you cannot do what you want, do what you can.

 

Perhaps there is a time for lamenting what we want to do.  But even in our lament, there is space for doing what we can.  It is not easy to let go of how things could have been, how things should be, how they could be.  But we are not going to find ourselves in better places until we are willing to live in the places where we currently are.  To live in the present is not to give up your dreams, it is to live today in the presence of dreams yet unrealized.  It is to do what you can do, in alignment with your calling to live like Jesus.  It is doing your part to incrementally allow your heart to be tuned to His, and trusting Him, the One who changes everything, to complete His work in His time.  It is living the life that is yours to live.  Setting your eyes on the Everlasting Kingdom, setting your heart on obeying the One who purchased this inheritance for you.     

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If you cannot do what you want, do what you can.

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He will do what you cannot, but He cannot work where you refuse to let Him.  I say to myself first, bow the knee to the King of Kings.  Pray “Lord, make me willing, to be willing, to be willing.”  Yield your desires to the Desire of the Nations.  Let Him mold your heart, your will, your desire...His way.  This is what (by His grace) you can do. 

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If you cannot do what you want, do what you can.

Then behold the marvelous things which with that, He will do.  

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Search me, O God, and know my heart!  Try me and know my thoughts!  And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”  Psalm 139:23-24

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