Is breakthrough always something big and spectacular, or can it be something small? A 5-year-old child with cerebral palsy takes their first step. That’s big. A stroke patient says their first 4-word sentence after eight months of speech therapy. That’s big. There are dozens of examples I can think of where something small that was fought for over a long period of time was celebrated as if they had reached the tallest mountain peak. If you are facing a mountain, I’m here to remind you, it’s okay if it’s hard. Don’t let it stop you!

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Nothing in this world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty.” I think he was right. He also said “Do what you can with what you have where you are.” I think these are both great quotes.

Functional Grace is all about breakthrough. Do you ever feel like you’re moving at a snail’s pace toward your healing (whether emotional, spiritual, or physical)? Keep moving. Do you feel like you’ve fallen, and it takes everything you have just to stand? Keep standing. Keep trying. Maybe you haven’t started yet. Start somewhere. Yes, getting started can be the hardest part. But I can tell you if it’s costing you something, there is purpose in it. I promise!

Struggle

We don’t love being the “underdog,” but we do love cheering for one, don’t we? We cheer the loudest when we see the struggle before the success. We love a good David and Goliath story. We smile and applaud the humble orphaned artist who finally makes it on the big stage, but then we frown and shake our heads when we see a wealthy business owner without a sob story. We sometimes miss the value in something or someone until we see what had to be overcome. Why is that?

We actually need to struggle in order to thrive. This seems backwards, but we see it throughout nature, too. You know, the baby chick that has to peck its way out of the shell. It takes a while. If someone else pulled the shell apart, it would end up being too physically weak and likely die. It’s ironic, perhaps. We spend most of our time trying to avoid pain and suffering, but these are the very things that drive progress, growth, and success. We crave success. We cry (or at least I cry) when we finally reach the next level of breakthrough – especially when it has cost us something. If it were easy, it wouldn’t mean anything. Indeed, behind every success are multiple failures that came before it. So it’s okay to feel broken. It’s okay not to be okay sometimes. You won’t always be where you are now. Imagine how great that breakthrough will be!

Beyond the Goal

I wasn’t sure if I should include this next part in this blog, but I’m going for it. If it’s hard enough just thinking about reaching a particular goal, why mention anything beyond that? Can’t we be done now? Well, what if the purpose of the goal is more than just reaching the goal itself? Or what if we find a bigger purpose along the way? I generally don’t like playing the “what if?” game, but what if the purpose isn’t what we think it is? What if we get the thing we’ve fought so hard for, and then we don’t know what to do with it? Hear me out…

In the Bible, there is a story of a crippled man who would sit beside a pool and ask people for help. Jesus sees him and asks him if he wants to get well (John 5:1-9). For the longest time I thought it was such an insulting question for Jesus to ask. I mean, of course he wanted to get well! He’d been lame for 38 years! But someone showed me how to look deeper.

With healing comes responsibility. Life changes when we reach the next level. The thing or person we put our hope in (even if it’s ourselves) may disappoint us in the end. Much like a retired (or injured) athlete who gets “tunnel syndrome” after they reach their goal (or now have no way of reaching it) they ask themselves, “Now what?”

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t strive for goals or success in our daily lives, or that we shouldn’t be able to enjoy the success of reaching them. Not at all. I am only proposing that the things we think mark the finish line may only mark the beginning of something else. It sounds exhausting, perhaps to the person who’s already tired from plodding along to that one goal they set a long time ago. However, whether we fail or succeed, we should keep going! If we’re not growing we’re dying. Take the baby chick, for example (again). The purpose of the process of struggling to peck out of the shell isn’t just to get out of the shell. As before, it’s also to build strength for what comes after that. The possibilities for greater things open up, and you wouldn’t have even thought those things were possible had you not gone through the struggle of the first one.

A crocus bulb (or technically corm) has to go through winter before it can sprout. Eventually that bulb will grow and produce more and more flowers. Tree limbs get pruned to support the weight of the branches, leaves, and fruit to come. So yes, fight for that weight loss breakthrough. Fight for reducing chronic pain. Yes, fight for that relationship with your spouse. Fight for that diploma. Fight for the breakthrough. Then accept the challenge of responsibility that comes with the success. You’re growing!s