April 7, 2018
Complacency is the biggest threat to today’s generation. I could sit here and explain to you how I have pushed past the limits of complacency that society tries to force on people, yet I think explaining rather what has pushed me to strive for success and how it has shaped my life would be much more beneficial for application to anyone’s life.
To be honest, fear has been the most controlling factor in leading me towards success. Fear of being a “nobody” and fear of not capitalizing on what strengths God has given me has been a major driving factor in my life. I think if others are truly honest with themselves, they would also be able to recognize that same fear I have in their own lives. This fear is so impactful that it has pushed me to be my best self, my most achieved self. While this fear is harmful in the fact that it sometimes calls me to overcompensate and never feel perfect enough, it is also a healthy fear. See, this acute fear of not being great enough is quite healthy in the sense that it pushes me past my boundaries, into the unknown, in hopes of becoming my best self. It calls me out of complacency and urges me to stop settling.
Arguably the most prevalent question in everyone’s mind today is: “What is my purpose and how does it give me value?” It rages in people’s minds; it is a make-or-break question that either results in a person settling and living an ordinary life or vibrantly seeking out that purpose to its fruition. Personally, I want to be the ladder person. I constantly push myself to be the best version of myself, and God has blessed me with people to support me in my journey towards success. However, I am not above saying that my battle towards ideal purpose is always beneficial. Most times, I am reminded that I struggle, have imperfections, and ultimately fail. That is not the end of my story though… I have a loving Father who gives me the strength and the skills to fulfill HIS purpose for my life. If you also feel like a failure at times, YOU have a loving Father who has a perfect and exact plan for your purpose.
Jesus is the absolute best example of a life lived outside the confinements of complacency. God gave him an extremely “God-sized” purpose for His time on Earth. While Jesus was bound by Earth’s limitations, those didn’t nearly overshadow His defined mission for humanity: to save us from our sins. Jesus faced the same struggle we do to obey and submit to God’s will, but it was His daily choice to follow God’s plan for Him that allowed Him to leave such a remarkable and precious gift for all people, salvation. Complacency did not have any room for control over Jesus’ life. If Jesus had settled at any point, we would not have had the invaluable gift of eternal life. Even if He had at any point stopped performing miracles and living out His purpose of glorifying God, the five thousand would have gone hungry, the blind man would have stayed in darkness, the adulterer would have been stoned, and the list goes on. That is all to say, if at any point we give in to complacency, we will miss out on God’s ultimate, fulfilling purpose for our lives. We will fail, not only because of our natural human misgivings, but also because of our inability to submit to God’s will. The Lord can work outside of human limitations; in fact, His power is only revealed more in weakness. There is no person that God cannot work through and bless through the skills He has given them. When we settle, we give up a life of greatness that the Lord has planned for us.
Furthermore, when we submit to God, we are relieved of our earthly fear of missing out on human success, and instead are surrounded by the peace that comes with following Christ. We no longer maintain a fear of being great on our own because we aren’t succeeding on our own; we are solely manifesting our purpose by using God’s strength alone. Fear of not being good enough, that fear that drives me as motivation slowly morphs into a sole desire to glorify God by using His blessings to fulfill His purpose for my life. That is my hope, my prayer for my generation that we may be deeply satisfied with carrying out His plan, not ours. I profoundly desire to have the honor of being a part of the generation that wields Christ’s power into a transformational vehicle of making our world better. May we be the generation that lives out God’s purpose actively in our lives in such a way that we call out that same drive in others. May we be the ones to pull millions out of their complacent lifestyles and instead, chase a life of meaning, which can only come from Christ Himself. This is my prayer for myself and my generation.
With love,
C