We’ve all wanted to hit the restart button before.
We want a reset when life’s all topsy-turvy – when everything’s turned upside down. We want another shot when it seems nothing can change our circumstances. We give up hope, wanting to start again.
I’ll do things better and different this time, I promise.
But if you think about it carefully, I don’t believe you really want a restart. I’ll suggest some reasons why.
Perhaps life will be easier this time around. Smoother. Painless.
For starters – you can’t. No matter how much prayer and petition you put into it, you know that a “restart” is technically impossible in our reality.
Yes, restarting sounds great. It’s another shot back at the beginning – with lessons learnt from the previous attempt. Perhaps life will be easier this time around. Smoother. Painless.
But the truth is, you don’t need to go back to the starting point in your life because God is exactly where you are right now. God is with you.
If you’re walking with Him, then He has you right where He wants you to be.
How can this be, you say? My life is a mess right now.
I don’t want to trivialise your struggles. I just want to encourage you: our faith is tested in trials. Without trials, how will we know what our faith is made of? Yet, as we suffer in trials, the Bible says there is joy.
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4)
I didn’t believe any of this when I hit rock bottom in the second half of 2014. I didn’t simply consider just restarting – I considered ending it all.
My heart would choose to ignore the truths I knew deep down in my soul. I considered running away from everything – escaping – but everywhere I turned, He somehow found me (Psalm 139).
In retrospect, not being able to “restart” when I wanted it the most has shown me the depths of His love, grace and mercy over the last two years. The God I worship doesn’t do restarts …
