Everybody would love to leave their problems behind them. Money problems. Marriage problems. Career problems. Car problems. People problems. Health problems. Some days it seems as if life is just one long unending succession of problems waiting in line for your attention! It is certainly tempting to just cut and run! You find your gaze lingering on those tropical vacation advertisements. Or worse – seeking to escape the pressure in something illegal, immoral, or fattening!
But here’s the true facts: you can never outrun your problems. You have to o-u-t-g-r-o-w them. Problems really are an inescapable part of life. No matter how far you run, there will be more problems there when you arrive! No matter how long you bury your head in the sands of escapism, when you finally pull it out your problems will be right there waiting for you. Only now they’re even bigger!
Here’s what you need to do:
- Pray. Absolutely. Just ask for divine wisdom and help in tackling things. God loves you and is there for you. Always.
- Take charge. Nobody likes to take responsibility for their own problems, but there’s a flip side: when you take responsibility you give yourself the ability to respond! If bad choices created the problems – better choices can solve them.
- Solve one. Facing a wall of problems at once always makes us feel overwhelmed. But like an intimidating gang of bullies, they’re not so big when you face each one alone. It’s not that you can’t solve your problems, it’s just that when you take on too many at once that they seem insurmountable. Just solve one. Then move on to the next one.
- Repeat.
See what just happened there? Instead of cringing, dodging, avoiding, or running – you just faced your Goliath head on and took him apart limb by limb. In your own mind you just switched it up and became bigger than your problems. And you are bigger! Just take them apart and take them down.
Once you do this enough times it starts to become a habit. Soon you’ll find yourself solving problems without even exerting yourself. The more problems you solve, the smoother and happier your road becomes. In fact, you might get so good at it that you run out of your own problems and have to start helping other people solve theirs! That’s where the fun really starts!
