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know your why
Team Huddle
1 min.Read

No Excuses, Know Your Why

Andrea Matthews
By Andrea Matthews

Have you forgotten your ‘why’?

I’m young, but I’m not sure that’s an adequate excuse. Maybe “I’m broke” or “I’m weak” would suffice. What makes a good excuse? Before we answer that question, we’re forced to face another: Why use an excuse at all?

In my experience, I’ve located one overarching answer to this question: We make excuses when we don’t know our ‘why’.

Our ‘why’ is the reason why we progress, the reason why we love, the reason why we exist. As Christians, our why should always come from the lamp that lights our path, the Word of God (Psalm 119:105).

Most of our decisions begin with a ‘why’ — at times, a very strong ‘why’. We marry because our spouse makes us better than we ever thought possible. We go to school because once we receive our medical degree, we’ll have the necessary qualifications to be daily lifesavers. We pledge to give an annual amount to the local missionary out of obedience to God because He’ll provide the additional income.

But life inevitably brings storms and during those storms, we tend to lose sight of our ‘why’. When that happens, we’ll find any excuse to rescue us from trouble. We forget the reason we married, allowing offense to manifest its victory in divorce, and say “I fell out of love”. Failing grades mean failing lives and we choose to drop out with “college just isn’t my thing.” Money gets tight and all the sudden, “faith doesn’t pay the bills”.

How effective would the Kingdom of God be if we chose instead to battle through the tribulation? I assure you, God knew about the storm before it came, and the ‘why’ He gave you to fight with is strong enough to carry you through.

So, what’s the play call?

Establish your why with the truth of God’s Word. Choose to meditate on it instead of the circumstances surrounding you. Watch God work!

“…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” —Philippians 1:6

 

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They Changed Their Minds about Slavery and Left a Bible Record

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Two businessmen’s unusual conversion in 1700s South Carolina led them to liberate the people they put in bondage. At first glance, William Turpin and his business partner, Thomas Wadsworth, appeared to be like most other prestigious and powerful white men in late 18th-century South Carolina. They were successful Charleston merchants, had business interests across the state, got involved in state politics, and enslaved numerous human beings. Nothing about them seemed out of the ordinary. But, quietly, these two men changed their minds about slavery. They became committed abolitionists and worked to free dozens of enslaved people across South Carolina. When most wealthy, white Carolinians were increasingly committed to slavery and defending it as a Christian institution, Turpin and Wadsworth were compelled by their convictions to break the shackles they had placed on dozens of men and women. In an era when the Bible was edited so that enslaved people wouldn’t get the idea that God cared about their freedom, Turpin left a secret record of emancipation in a copy of the Scriptures, which is now in the South Carolina State Museum. Perhaps it’s not surprising that this story of faith and freedom is mostly unknown. The two men were, after all, working not to attract attention. Neither had deep roots in Charleston or close familial ties to its storied white “planter” dynasties. Turpin’s family was originally from Rhode Island, and Wadsworth was a native of Massachusetts who moved to South Carolina only shortly after the American Revolution. Both had public careers and served in the South Carolina Legislature, but their political profiles were not particularly high. Neither of them appeared to give any of their legislative colleagues the sense that they were developing strong, countercultural opinions on one of the most ...Continue reading...

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