But It’s Impossible!
Elaine Poproski Download: Audio
Scripture: Matthew 19:16-24
16 Then someone came to him and said, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” Read more…
Looking to Sunday
by Elaine Poproski
I once broke the record for high jump. It was a regional record. And it was a middle school regional record. But it was pretty impressive, nonetheless. Sadly, I broke the record during a practice, and I was never able to repeat the feat in an actual competition. I worked hard at the high jump. I enjoyed it. But I was never going to be great at it. I struggled with coordinating my feet properly in the run up to the jump. You see the run must be precise. You need to gain enough speed that you have power behind your jump, but you also need to time your steps such that your last one lands on your jumping leg to propel you over the pole. I never managed to figure out the run and so failed to consistently make the jump. And then my centre of gravity changed as my body changed and high jump became a thing of the past.
There’s this thing we tell kids: “If you work hard at it, you can do anything you set your mind to.” It’s a good idea and I like that it inspires kids to try new things and to stick with things they find difficult, but I don’t like that it’s also a lie. There are things in this world that, no matter how hard you or I try, we will never be able to do. Maybe it’s the shape of our body. Maybe it’s the unique way our brain works. Maybe it’s something else. Whatever it is, there are things in this world, like me becoming an Olympic high jumper, that are just not possible.
Jesus was chatting with His disciples one day and said this to them: “I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” In other words, it’s impossible. The disciples, like most other people they knew, assumed that wealth could get someone just about anything. But not this. And if that weren’t bad enough, Jesus went on and said, “For mortals [that pretty much covers everyone in the world ever] it is impossible” (Mt. 19:24 – 26). Thankfully, He didn’t end there. He also said, “…but for God all things are possible.”
For God, all things are possible.
Isn’t that a wonderful statement of truth? All things don’t need to be possible for me because all things are possible for God. And He’s my dad. He loves me so much He adopted me into His family. He loves me so much He took care of all the things that are impossible for me and made them possible through Him.
As you prepare for Sunday, I invite you to spend some time considering what it means in your life that all things are possible for God. What do you need from Him these days? Are you able to trust Him to provide what you need? Are you willing to trust Him to decide what impossible thing He will do and what impossible thing He won’t do?