you can.
“Sarah, can you help me?”
The three-year-old I was babysitting stepped on the ladder at the playground, and then proceeded to climb it all by himself.
“Of course!” I said. “But you’re doing it!”
As he climbed higher, he kept shouting back to me, “I can’t!”
It was such an interesting experience to watch him do that which he said “I can’t” to. What was I supposed to do with that? You literally are though.
Isn’t that how faith feels – how life feels – sometimes? Just a few weeks ago, I had almost this exact conversation with a friend. I was the kid on the ladder shouting, “I can’t.” And her response was simply, “You are doing it though. Already. Today.”
I’ve learned that it’s often right in the middle where the enemy tries to come in and tell us we can’t do the thing we are literally already doing. It can be something as small as climbing a ladder or as massive as being a single parent. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, the enemy always wants you to believe you don’t have what it takes. He always wants you to sit down so he can steal, kill, and destroy without you getting in the way. It’s wild how easily we don’t see what he’s doing and believe him – how easily I believe him, I should say. How often I believe I don’t have what it takes to do what I’m literally doing. But, honestly? It’s because that’s what it feels like. When my circumstances are hard, it’s so tempting to believe the lie that I don’t have what it takes.
In the past, that’s been enough. Remembering that – no wait, I can because I am – has reminded me that I do have what it takes. I must, right? But more recently, I’ve learned that’s not always enough. Sometimes it feels like I may be doing it now, but I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be able to go. Maybe what that boy I was babysitting was actually saying was not that he couldn’t do it, but that he didn’t think he could keep doing it. I realized that it doesn’t just matter to remember that I can – that I have the ability. It matters to remember how I can and where that ability comes from. If I believe what I have comes from myself, then the enemy is right, and I’m bound to fall. On my own, I don’t have what it takes. But if I remember that Jesus is with me, that the power of the Holy Spirit is inside me, then I know that I will have everything I need to keep going – that I can.
But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31 NLT
I don’t know what you’re in the middle of or what it is you need, but you can. You can have it. You can keep going. You can run and not grow weary. You can walk and not faint. You can – because Jesus is always with you.
