Keep Climbing
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. – Ephesians 2:10
Writer Langston Hughes does an amazing job at conveying the principle that life isn’t always easy or clear in his poem “Mother to Son.” In this work of poetry, the mother says to her son, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” In other words, life isn’t always smooth, polished, or easy. No, she says that life has, “tacks in it, and splinters, and boards torn up, and places with no carpet on the floor—bare.”
There are things in the staircase of life that Hughes is trying to convey from this mother to her son, things that are not easy, things that might hurt you, things that might trip you up, and yet, even though there are stairs with no carpet, she says, “I’se still climbing.” In other words, even though life hasn’t been a clean, beautiful staircase, I keep going.
She tells her son what God has been trying to convey to us as His children since the beginning of humanity: that when news arrives at the doorstep of your life that you didn’t expect, you have to keep going. Even though the world and society won’t put padding and cushion on the stairs of life, even though you try to do the best you can, even when you are trying to live right and things are not working out the way you expect, keep climbing.
In the song written by Harris Johnson, he writes, “some folk would rather have houses and land. Some folk choose silver and gold. These things they treasure and forget about their soul, [but] I’ve decided to make Jesus my choice. The road is rough and the going gets tough, and the hills are hard to climb. I’ve started out a long time ago, there’s no doubt in my mind. I decided to make Jesus my choice.”
God can use the unorthodox, the unconventional, and the unusual affairs of our lives to demonstrate His love and His faithfulness to His people even when life doesn’t turn out the way we hoped or thought it would. And when God moves outside of your paradigm you have to be able to bob and weave, sort of like a boxer. When God moves, you have to move so that you can experience and accept all that He has for you.
Writer Langston Hughes does an amazing job at conveying the principle that life isn’t always easy or clear in his poem “Mother to Son.” In this work of poetry, the mother says to her son, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” In other words, life isn’t always smooth, polished, or easy. No, she says that life has, “tacks in it, and splinters, and boards torn up, and places with no carpet on the floor—bare.”
There are things in the staircase of life that Hughes is trying to convey from this mother to her son, things that are not easy, things that might hurt you, things that might trip you up, and yet, even though there are stairs with no carpet, she says, “I’se still climbing.” In other words, even though life hasn’t been a clean, beautiful staircase, I keep going.
She tells her son what God has been trying to convey to us as His children since the beginning of humanity: that when news arrives at the doorstep of your life that you didn’t expect, you have to keep going. Even though the world and society won’t put padding and cushion on the stairs of life, even though you try to do the best you can, even when you are trying to live right and things are not working out the way you expect, keep climbing.
In the song written by Harris Johnson, he writes, “some folk would rather have houses and land. Some folk choose silver and gold. These things they treasure and forget about their soul, [but] I’ve decided to make Jesus my choice. The road is rough and the going gets tough, and the hills are hard to climb. I’ve started out a long time ago, there’s no doubt in my mind. I decided to make Jesus my choice.”
God can use the unorthodox, the unconventional, and the unusual affairs of our lives to demonstrate His love and His faithfulness to His people even when life doesn’t turn out the way we hoped or thought it would. And when God moves outside of your paradigm you have to be able to bob and weave, sort of like a boxer. When God moves, you have to move so that you can experience and accept all that He has for you.
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