The Struggle is Real. So is the Victory.

Fridays don't come often enough, yet time is passing so fast they come too often.  I often wish my life away looking for Saturday.

Just to be real, about the struggle that is, by Friday I am maxed out.  

By Friday I don't like who I am, I don't like my thoughts, I don't like my reactions, I don't like my mental fatigue.  I don't like to have to make one more decision or figure out one more problem at work.  I think things like, "Why can't people just.........?" .  You fill in the blank. Usually it's accompanied by a huff, an eye roll, or the flopping of my hands in exasperation.  Sometimes all three.

I don't like my attitude.  Period.  It stinks.

And the end of the Friday work day can't come soon enough. I practically run to my car!  I think they are so tough because I know that Saturday is almost in my reach and I just want to be there already, like the last 20 minutes of a long drive. I just want it over, you know?  Not to complain, but to illustrate how much Saturday means to me, l have to explain.  I work Monday through Friday, and since my husband is a pastor, Sunday is sort of a work day for all of us.  Not a bad work day, just a day of being committed to be somewhere.  So, it feels like Saturday is our only day of "freedom" so to speak.

Hence the struggle.

It's amazing how, in just seconds after I recognize my Friday foul-ness (or any other day, for that matter) and consciously turn my thoughts toward Him to try to face it through that lens, the enemy bebops to my proverbial doorstep to present an irritation, a frustration, something so petty, that SQUIRREL, there goes my perspective, faster the passing of a beloved Saturday.

This is not a new struggle.  It's an old one.  And it is real.

But so is the victory.

Here's where He stopped me this Saturday morning as I sipped my coffee from my ❤️Wonder Woman mug❤️ 

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.  
2 Corinthians 2:14

Did you see that word triumph?  I did.  And that's what I want. Victory.   


Here's few simple facts we can mine out of this verse

1. He leads. Always.
2. His lead is victorious.
3. It is victorious because of Jesus and what He did for us.
4. Besides the victory for us, there's a sweet fragrance others experience just because of our following and knowing Him on the journey.

This is smelling sweet to me already,


His lead always goes in the direction of what Jesus did.  Victory over sin.  If I want the victory over my real struggles, the answer is to follow His lead.   


God's direction is the one that always leads to victory because Jesus' victory over death cannot be changed.


For it was Jesus Himself who said,

It is finished.

That sweet aroma that I crave will be present to others will only happen by following this lead.  It comes from knowing Him in each moment of that journey.  Even on Friday.

The stuggle is real, folks.  But so is the victory.