I scrolled across a meme the other day that gave some of the best advice I’ve ever seen on a social media outlet before. It said, “Amazing things will happen today if you choose to not be a miserable cow.” I literally about lost it and fell out of my chair laughing so hard. But there was a time in my life that the miserable cow thing totally fit me. I didn’t laugh very much, nothing compared to the joy level I experience daily now. I professed to be a Christian, but the sour look on my face proved otherwise. I felt heartbroken and confused and it was all because I believed a lie.
I fell for the continual lie that satan tells all of us: God is holding out on you. He’s not really going to bless you and He’s not really on your side. You can’t trust Him. I found that the lie seeped its way into my every thought, my actions and my words. I found myself making plan B’s because I didn’t know if God would really help me or not. I felt perpetually miserable most days because I didn’t know if God loved me or not. Instead of spending my days in a peaceful state I spent them strategizing and grasping for ideas to make things work out in my favor. And worst of all, I tried desperately to make God love me by attempting perfection. Of course that didn’t work out for me. I crashed and burned at the bottom of a depression pit because I realized I could never be good enough.
But the truth is that Jesus came to give life to the fullest to us! Abundant living is in His plan for us . That’s a life full of adventure, fun, learning opportunities, unconditional love and partnering with Him to bring His kingdom to earth. When I finally realized how abundant my life should be I started smiling and laughing more. I stopped trying to figure everything out and I just went with the flow. I let the Spirit lead me and things started to uncomplicate. As I read scripture and spent time with Him I began to realize just how much He loved me. It sounds ridiculous but it was hard for me to accept a love I could not earn.
I believed other lies too. Ones like I never really heard God’s voice and I made up these grand ideas in my head. This made me feel destined to fail. In fact, these thoughts made me so discouraged that I eventually just gave up on the dreams God put inside of me. I felt like I couldn’t trust myself to hear God’s voice. And that scared the poop out of me honestly.
I’ve witnessed other miserable Christians over the years too. Their faces are long and they seem to drag a club behind them waiting to pounce on someone else and spread their misery. Their words are laced with bitterness even though they can quote tons of scripture. They have become masters at keeping the rules but they aren’t free. They look like trapped little birds in a cage. Even if someone opened the cage they wouldn’t even know how to fly. They missed the point that chrisitianity isn’t about rule keeping; it’s about getting to know Jesus. When we get to know Jesus we usually end up following the rules anyway, but for different reasons.
So how does one stop being a miserable Christian? It starts with exchanging the lies for the truth. Beginning with the way we see God. Do we see Him as an angry judge eager to mete out punishment to all who do not comply with His demands? Or do we see Him as a loving and kind Father that did everything He could to restore a relationship with His beloved child? If we see Him as anything other than the wonderful Father that He is we open the door to all kinds of painful experiences resulting from the lies. Truth believed yields hope, joy, peace and all of the other wonderful kingdom qualities that we all long for in our lives. But the flip side of that coin is that lies believed yield anger, hopelessness, depression and a joyless existence. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to live that way. That’s not life at all, that’s just awkwardly surviving. It’s like limping through life on 1 leg when you have wings and you could fly if you wanted.
I’m going to evaluate my own thoughts this week and see where I stand. I don’t want to be a miserable cow and the truth is it’s my choice what I believe. Just because a thought pops into my head I don’t have to be believe it. It will always be within my power to choose, I just need to accept the responsibility to do it.
How to Stop Being a Miserable Christian
