The 90%

"Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it."

-Lou Holtz

"A man shouldn't be judged by what he accomplishes, but he should be judged by what he overcomes."

-Johnny Miller

You've likely heard that first quote before. I didn't know it was attributed to coach Holtz, but I love this thought.

I've been stewing and pontificating a lot lately on this idea. How we respond to things?

It is so important. In fact, I think it's one of the defining moments in our stories.

I've spent years and years connecting with others and hearing their stories and inevitably there is a moment when something does not go the way they were planning. That's my story too. Good chance it's a part of yours.

At this point in my ministry it's so much about how we respond to life in this broken world. Our inner response is often different than what we say. We often say "I'm trusting God" or "I"m praying and giving it to Him" and what we do is try and fix it ourselves without inviting Him into the mess.

You and I have regrets that likely would not exist if we would have moved from trying to do it ourselves handling things to fully inviting Him in each and every detail of what we are dealing with. Easy to write, hard to do.

For me this last year has been full of the Lord helping me through digging through years and years of what John Eldridge calls "soul erosion"... the consequence of doing relational ministry and at times caring too much without fully letting go to Him. Years of "seeing how the sausage is made" and not always feeling good about it, at times I was the one making the sausage.

I'm so grateful for this time. In many ways when I look in the mirror today I see a different person than I did a year ago.

That has not one thing to do with me, but everything to do with His still, small voice and healing and guiding spirit. My role is to open my hands and trust Him with it ALL. The good, the bad, the unmet expectations and frustrations. I do need to be aggressive in surrender, this is a transactional process. But He paid for it on the cross and offers us the grace, life, and hope we need to move forward in faith.

The principal is simple to say, but hard to live. I know, have literally spent years and years of back porch conversations wrestling with this...

But in His grace, the outcome is often defined by how we handle it. Don't just say your trusting Him, allow your heart, mind, and soul to fully surrender and trust Him.

Do you allow the moment of frustration to cause you to lean into God or away from Him?

Do you allow the pain to push you further or closer to Him.

Do you allow frustration to define you?

What happens in your soul when you collide with unmet expectations?

How are you surrendering everything to Him, truly?

Are you seeing yourself defined by your mistakes or current situation or by who He says you are?

We are not robots or just mindless followers. God made us with emotions, feelings, dreams, and hopes. Along the way life has a way of attacking those and often paralyzing us.

How you deal with that affects who you are becoming. Praying you and I fight this good fight well...