Ever feel you’d be better off dead? Some days life seems so stacked against us, obstacles loom so large, that all looks lost.
Yet, nothing is ever so lost that it cannot be found by the One who sees all.
Many might think that a black baby boy born on the floor of an abandoned building to an unmarried, drug addled young mother would have been better off never born. Who would have hope for that poor child adopted by a 38 year-old, single cleaning lady? As he failed fourth grade and then eighth, who would expect anything but more failure?
But Mamie Brown’s baby boy overcame. As an errand boy at a radio station, he learned the ropes and became a D.J., and eventually broadcast manager. He emceed for nightclubs and banquets, and, developing his speaking abilities, became a community activist and state legislator, and finally a motivational speaker for the corporate world. World famous Les Brown decided to live!
Nothing – and nobody – is so lost that it cannot be found. Nobody is better off dead until he has fully lived.
God wanted to give his people the promised land – a place of prosperity and peace. And, they were almost there when they said, “If only we had died in Egypt!” (Numbers 14:2). Better off dead? How could that be?
Israel, as we often do, looked only at the looming problems, not at the limitless possibilities. Yes, the cities they were to inhabit already had inhabitants who were not anxious to give up their homes. Their enemy was enormous. And, well-armed. And, firmly entrenched. But Israel’s biggest obstacle was not the opposing army, but the self-limiting lie that said, “I can’t.”
“We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them,” they said (Numbers 13:33). Only when we seem small in our own eyes do we become small and weak in the eyes of others. Standing at the boundary of bounty, they balked. They were but a few brief battles from having the very best when they bailed out – and missed out
Les Brown says the wealthiest place in all the world is the cemetery. Buried there are countless treasures of unwritten books, uninvented products, and undiscovered cures – all the priceless dreams that died with those who never pursued them.
Don’t let God’s dreams for you die with you. They – and you – are better off alive!
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