forcing our way.

"think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way...then you'll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want."

i thought this was funny, because we're raised in a world where this 'old sinful habit' is how you're expected to live; you're expected to succeed, to climb mountains, to beat everyone to the top!

yet that's not how Jesus lived. that's not what Peter's saying here.

in the things i've been reading in the Bible lately, i've been learning that... well, i'm not good. i sin. like in that passage of Galatians i posted the other day, i live for myself.

and so i found these words;

"i have nothing. no life to lose; only Real Life to gain. despite what the world says we must do... following Jesus is all we must do."

and as said in the Galatians post, "we find ourselves... not needing to force our way in life."

once we figure out that no joy comes in trying to make everything right for ourselves and just how we think we need it to be blah blah BLAH -- and pray to God and say God i just need You to do a God-thing, miracle in me... 

the stuff in Galatians, it really comes true. 
because faith in God is a real thing. 
God is real.