Hang Tough

Hang Tough

When your life gets you down
Try not to frown
When your life can’t get any worse
And you think your life is one big curse

Turn close to God, turn close to God, and Pray
Do it constantly like every minute of the day
He will heal you with his hands
And make your life flavorful, no longer bland

You think you have it bad when that girl breaks up with you
Or even when Santa forgot that gift when you were two
No one said life would be easy
Sometimes it’s a hurricane and others a little breezy

Turn close to God, turn close to God, and Pray
Do it constantly like every minute of the day
He will heal you with his hands
And make your life flavorful, no longer bland

Life can be all you want it to be
Just try not to make all your prayers say the word me
Be persistent with your prayers
God will answer because he cares

Turn close to God, turn close to God, and Pray
Do it constantly like every minute of the day
He will heal you with his hands
And make your life flavorful, no longer bland

Keep praying over and over again
To heal someone or even forgive a sin
God won’t get tired to hear your voice
He’ll kick back and he’ll rejoice

Turn close to God, turn close to God, and Pray
Do it constantly like every minute of the day
He will heal you with his hands
And make your life flavorful, no longer bland



I wrote this because I was talking about persistence at Camp in summer of 2006. Isn’t it funny how hard it can be to be persistent sometimes? One minute you are on a high and the next you have hit the concrete floor with a thunk. It basically talks about the persistence of prayer. As you can tell that one stanza is repeated over and over again. It says turn close to God and pray. All the Time. He will heal you. And like Emeril would say BAM! To your life. Well that is the shortened version. But I believe the shortened version works very well as well. Think for a second: what is your life like when it’s bland? What is your life like when it’s flavorful? I would imagine you would call flavorful = happiness. I would imagine you would call bland = non-exciting. The dictionary says Flavorful = full of flavor, tasty. And Bland = not highly flavored; mild; tasteless. Well that makes me wonder how you get that tastiness. It just so happens the answer to that is very simple. JESUS! Jesus knows what it means to turn bland into flavorful. He did it in John 2:1-12. He made the bland into flavorful when he turned water into wine. JESUS is what our life being flavorful is all about. He is like a spice, and herb, a seasoning. When we live a life without Jesus it is blah. It is like food without a seasoning. Think of stuffing without the good taste. But when we cover ourselves in the herb, spice called Jesus Christ we become flavorful. We become whole. We become something we can be proud of. However, no one said that using that seasoning called Jesus was easy. We find those times that life sucks, and instead of pulling the Jesus herb out of the cupboard we pull out self-pity spice. We pull out a jar called misery and we pour it all over ourselves. I am one to be talking. I do this a lot. We are human. However, we need to do a spring cleaning, and get rid of the self-pity, misery, loneliness, and we need to use an extra portion of Jesus on us. With Jesus in our lives our lives become worth living. He took up his cross and died for our sins. This just so happens to he Holy Week, and it can be our Holy Week as well, by taking up our crosses and dying on that cross. Get rid of our self-pity, misery, loneliness, and know the truth about that cross we carried. It represents freedom. Jesus already did that for us, but we can do it too for ourselves and for others. Why can’t we sacrifice our lives for Jesus’ life? 

So let’s move onto another part of this poem.
Let’s move to the part about sometime’s it’s a hurricane and other times it’s a little breezy. So we all stumble, we all fall. Sometimes we trip but catch ourselves. If we had to choose between a hurricane and a breeze we would all choose the breeze or probably the third choice of neither. I am going to call these valleys. We always are climbing and then we reach the top of the mountain. We feel good, but to get to the next mountain we have to cross a valley. It may be a deep valley (hurricane) or a shallow valley (breezy).

1. VALLEYS ARE INEVTIABLE = they are going to happen regardless, so you might as well count on them. You have just come out of a valley, you’re in one right now, or you are probably headed towards one. Jesus said in John 16 “in the world you will have trouble” It is not a matter of if, but rather when. It will happen; it is a normal part of life. Don’t be surprised.

2. VALLEYS ARE UNPREDICTABLE = you can’t plan these valleys. You can’t schedule them. Plus they usually come at the worst time. Have you ever had a flat tire at a good time? They usually happen when they are the least convenient and you least need them or want them. Ever realize how a good day can all of the sudden become a train wreck and all hell breaks lose?

3. VALLEYS ARE IMPARTIAL = No one is immune though. Don’t think that this only happens to you, because you are wrong. EVERYONE faces valleys. Problems, trials, difficulties, disturbances, downtimes, depression doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. It means you’re a person. It doesn’t mean you are an evil human being, it means you are a human being.

4. VALLEYS ARE TEMPORARY = they have an end to them. They don’t last. They may seem to take a while, but they don’t last. David himself, whom I consider the Manliest Man in the Bible said “Even though I walk through the valley…” You don’t stay and walk in it your entire life. It is something you go through. 1 Peter 1:6 says “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” Basically life is going to be rough. However, there is wonderful joy ahead. He is talking about Heaven. There are no problems in Heaven, no valleys, no dark days. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ that is where you are going.

5. VALLEYS ARE PURPOSEFUL = I know this is what no one wants to hear, but it’s the truth. God has a reason for taking you through the valleys. The valleys are not just a freak of nature. God wants them to build faith. We love mountain tops, but we don’t build faith there. You build faith in the valleys of life. When everything is going fine and great you don’t need God. But when you come face to face with a dark valley, you get on your knees. Faith is strengthened in the valleys. If you were to read Lamentations 3:18-20 “Gone is my glory, all that I had hoped for in the Lord. I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them and my soul is downcast within me.” It sure sounds like Jeremiah is going through a valley. But if you keep reading there is HOPE! “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.” 

Yeah we have our valleys our hurricanes, our breezy days, but through those Valleys come a greater story. A story full of love and story full of no valleys called HEAVEN. God has worked miracles in my life and I know he will in yours as well. I have had my fair share of valleys, and am slowly walking down into one. I say this because we are human. Yeah I am walking down into one, but what does that mean? It means it builds my faith! It also means that sooner or later I will be walking up to a mountain top.

Thank you God!