Buttons and Belts

Why is it that buttons fall off at the most inopportune times? I was in the bathroom at the mall the other day, doing what you do in a bathroom, when the button on my shorts popped off. This wouldn't have been a problem if I had remembered to put on a belt that morning. However, I had not. When I was done with my business, I zipped, washed, and headed out the door, praying that the zipper would stay in place and keep my shorts in the appropriate place. Unfortunately, it did not hold. Now, I know what you are thinking. Stop it. I did not fully lose my shorts to gravity. It was close, though. I spent the rest of our time in the mall with my hands in my pockets, holding up my shorts.

Life is like that sometimes. When you least expect it, something bad happens and makes everything even worse. It would be really easy to cower into a corner and give up. Some will choose this solution. Others will get mad at the situation and lash out. Yet others will decide to improvise and troubleshoot what has happened to make the best out of the situation. This is the hard road in my opinion. Though, it is the road that I seem to be walking lately--the road that I have not chosen. I do not feel like I get to make my own decisions right now. The only option I have is to react to what has already happened and make the most of it. That is not always a good feeling. It is definitely not freeing.

Tenacity is a word I learned at 8th grade basketball camp. One of the coaches there used it to describe how one should play defense. He was the most intense of all the coaches that week. He was the hardest of all the coaches. We dreaded drill time with him. But, thinking back, he was the one that I remember. I can still hear him screaming in my head, “butt to the baseline!"

When the road we walk becomes tough, we need to become tenacious with how we live. This is especially true for those who claim faith in the most High. Faith is nothing if it does not include anything more than mere thoughts. It is nothing if it is not lived out tenaciously when things get hard, even if it gets too hard to handle and your only option is to react. That is when the want to be faithful, to live out kingdom ways needs to take over. There needs to be a deep resolve to live out the fruit of the Spirit and not become worldly with our actions. We need to lay aside the thoughts of revenge, anger, and giving up and be the people that God has called us to be--those who are called by his name because they are holy--set apart and different.

Paul tells us that we need to cloth ourselves in the armor of light in Romans 13. In Ephesians 6, its the armor of God. Interestingly, the first part of that armor is the belt of truth.

"Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. . ."

Ironically (to me anyway), I was wearing a pair of the new shorts I bought on the aforementioned shopping trip today. When I went to the bathroom, the button on them fell off. Brand new, yet already broken. And to think, I almost didn't wear a belt today because they were new.

Be ready for anything and make the most of what God puts before you!