Triumph, Shack and a Beetle

Darlene Morgan
Aug 12, 2024
3 min read

Ironically I’ve been listening to my old school rock band Triumph when working in my yard - the song Fight the Good Fight. It moves me!

I left my dad’s house the day after I turned 18. Dad said, “once you leave this house, don’t come back.” I didn’t.

Listening to Triumph songs as I drove to my boyfriend’s (parents) house. Where we had the house to ourselves for a weekend before they returned from a trip.

We then moved in with a couple that lived in a run down house.

It was ROUGH! And that was an understatement and the beginning of what would be some of my worst days. I was blind to it all. And I think of that couple and I wonder if they made it. And though they knew their house was not great still opened their door to us.

Yet through years of doing things the hard way … Christ kept me going and at times alive.

My devotion this morning is encouraging to me as I find myself years later in tough predicaments.

So, I ask myself, why would God be any different in His guidance over me now - than He was when I drove down 29th street in my little blue Volkswagen Beetle?

He knew what I was in for and even though my stubbornness lead me - Jesus quietly held me. I didn’t know He was there until years later seeing how all along He carried and saved me through so much.

Here I am 40 years later - alive, as well as can be mentally and physically thanks to God, 4 children and persevering. I sit in my home looking out at the lake … still remembering very clearly the shack I lived in sleeping on a floor and eating … well oftentimes nothing. That little shack is just a mere few miles away.

Sometimes we need to look back to see how far we’ve come and who was actually there for us.

And … Why worry now over situations we feel are out of our control when Christ was there for us during times we tried to control.

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Keep the Faith - Fight the Good Fight

In the book of 2 Timothy, we find Paul writing a letter to Timothy, a fellow missionary. Many Bible scholars believe that this was the last letter Paul wrote before his death and that he wrote it from a Roman prison cell. Reflecting on his own life and believing that his death was coming soon, Paul writes that powerful passage:

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

2 Timothy 4:7 NIV

Faithful.

Paul was faithful to God and, without end, God was faithful to Paul. Shipwrecked. Stoned. Abandoned by friends. Imprisoned. The list of what Paul ‌suffered goes on and on. But he ‌persevered. He ‌remained steadfast in his devotion to Christ.

In Paul, we see an example of what it is to cling to faith in Christ. He knew what it was to be dependent on God for everything. He drew strength from God because Paul could not do it without Him.

In our own lives, we will face moments of doubt or discouragement. Let us hold fast to the truth of God's Word, knowing that He is faithful and will never leave us. May it be said of us, at the end of our lives, that we, too, fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith.

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Questions to ponder - and I'd love to hear from you!

When you think about your life, what do you want to be able to say at the end?

What will you see when you look back?

#anxietyattacks #prayfirst #believeinyourself #thehereandnow #life #thinking #shiftingthoughts #singlemomlife #unmakingamess #John316 #Triumph