Jimmy Dugan the Life Coach! :)

"The Hard is what makes it Great!"

This is one of the greatest Movie Quotes of all time! I remember seeing this in the theater and thinking to myself, "I will never forget that line." And you want to know something...I haven't. It is so relevant. Relevant to what you might ask (I really doubt anyone is asking that, but it helps drive the post...so deal with it). It is relevant to everything. Being married is too hard...the hard is what that makes it great. Having kids is too hard...the hard is what that makes it great. School is too hard...the hard is what makes it great. Work is too hard...the hard is what makes is great. Climbing that mountain is too hard...the hard is what makes it great. Living a life for Christ is too hard...the hard is what makes it great.

I think when people try to act like they have life all figured out and that nothing bothers them "because I have Jesus in my corner", it sets a very hard standard for others to live up to. Plus, I'm not sure I believe that every moment of every day is sun shine and smiles. We all know that those people really don't have it all figured out. They really don't have a smile on their face all the time. Life is dirty. You can get beat up by life. You can have times in life when you don't know where you are going to go or what you are going to do. Life can be hard. But you know what, in the long run...the hard is what makes it great.

Christ never promised us that life would be easy. He did promise us that He would never leave us. Christ never promised us that we would have everything we ever wanted. He did promise us that He would be enough. Christ never promised us a smile that would never fade and a life without bumps and bruises. He did promise us that He would always be there to hold us. There have been many times in my life (and I'm sure there will be many others) when I looked God square in the eyes and said "its just getting to hard." God leaned in with wisdom in His eyes and said, "If it wasn't hard...everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great."

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that life only has hard moments. There are those days of sunshine and smiles. But, having the hard days in my life has done two things for me: 1) Having the hard days makes me appreciate the good days that much more. If I did not have the days in the valley, my days on the mountain tops would begin to be taken for granted. 2) It always seems that it is during the hard times that I seem to learn the most. Now, I wish it were not that way. I wish I was able to learn things the easy way, but it never seems to work out that way. It always seems to be the times in life that I have been knocked down and kicked around the most that Christ steps in and uses it as a teaching moment. And being in the state that I am at that moment, I'm willing to listen a little more intently.

Who would have ever guessed that God could use a messed-up, has-been, old baseball player like Jimmy Dugan to remind me that no matter how crazy this old world gets and no matter how hard life can be, that it is the hard that makes life all worth wild. Plus, the advice written on the baseball wasn't that bad either. :)

God Bless and Keep Looking Up!