Christian Living

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My friend Sarah told me she’d been jogging in the rain as part of her new year’s resolution to lose weight.

“Oh, don’t you feel brave when you’ve gone out in the rain?” I enthused.

“Yeah, you feel like you can conquer the world!” she agreed.

When you look out of the bedroom window and see rain falling, it’s natural to want to stay in bed. There are many disadvantages of going for a jog or a walk in the rain – you get cold, wet and muddy, you can slip and fall, and you get rain in your eyes and your nose drips. But if you overcome your instinctive reaction to stay warm and dry, and get out to do what you know is right, it’s great. You always feel better afterwards, knowing you have won out over your ‘carnal desires’, giving a rewarding mental and physical victory.

You do feel like you can conquer the world! …Or maybe just your own little part of society.

We have been having some different struggles to overcome. The wind and rain have been constant, day after day, yet the beans and other crops still need to be picked. It hasn’t been enticing, knowing we will get wet to the skin, with feet getting wrinkled and soggy, and gradually getting muddier and colder as the day wears on. Bruce has a raincoat, but that got torn somehow one day and it has been blown off his shoulders by the wind. Nevertheless, there are crops to pick and money to be made. Whingeing doesn’t fix anything and so we have been going out in the boggy paddock, crouched down in the wind and rain, trying to make the best of a bad situation. And when the beans and cucumbers are washed and packed in boxes, and loaded into the back of the wagon, we feel better that we have made our best effort.

We have overcome our discouragement and apathy about the adverse conditions and done what we could. Although there are no great fanfares, or letters of praise, we know in a small way, we have overcome. Physical victories are perhaps easier than mental victories, like resisting the urge to say something bad about someone, or making the decision to turn off the TV when a show with questionable values starts. But all our struggles and victories are made initially in the mind anyway. Whether it’s deciding to exercise when the weather’s bad, or choosing to say something edifying instead of critical, we have to use our brain to make the first step in overcoming.

The wonderful thing about making different choices, instead of staying in our rut of bad old habits, is that we create new pathways in the brain, helping to keep our brain healthy and active. So by overcoming our natural tendencies and making hard decisions, we are forging a stronger future for ourselves!

Now, if I can only make the choice to overcome that chocolate temptation….


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“…for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” (1 John 5:4,5)

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