Fight Like The Third Monkey

I was really in need of some inspiration this morning.  

My headspace wasn't the greatest, mostly filled with thoughts about how I'm not being all that I should be... and my upcoming sermon isn't very good... and I had no idea what to write for today's devo... and I'm wishing I'd done a better job on a handful of tasks...   

I do that to myself more often than I'd like to admit.  I hide that stuff pretty well, though.  Most of us do.    

Right about the time when I was about to throw up my hands, I came across a graphic that a friend had posted on social media.  It had this quote, which made me chuckle, then grin, then laugh out loud.  

It was exactly what I needed to see.  And so I'll share it with you:  

Fight like you are the third monkey on the ramp to Noah's ark, and brother, it's beginning to rain.

Come on!  You know that's fantastic.  And now that you have this quote in your arsenal, you will never be the same again.  Because that is the only way to fight. 

All of this got me thinking about an exhortation that the Apostle Paul gave to one of the churches he planted using his own life as an example.  

Paul felt less than... he knew he had a terrible past... he struggled to get along with people sometimes... he second-guessed himself more than once.  But then he says this:  

I am the least of the messengers, and indeed I do not deserve that title at all, because I persecuted the Church of God. But what I am now I am by the grace of God. The grace he gave me has not proved a barren gift. I have worked harder than any of the others – and yet it was not I but this same grace of God within me.

Paul knew that what God had called him to do was worth the struggle.  It was worth whatever it might cost him.  And he fought like that third monkey on the ramp, my friends.  

Author and theologian Joan Chittister puts it like this: 

When we refuse to give up, when we go on trying--whatever the odds against success--something new is born in us.  Instead of a sense of failure, the very matter of trying recreates our sense of purpose, our sense of commitment, the perpetuity of the dream.  

May you refuse to give up doing good today and every day.  May you defy the odds against you, and keep fighting for what matters.  And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.