{"id":2414,"date":"2021-11-02T14:32:28","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T18:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/campus.cru.org\/faculty\/?p=2414"},"modified":"2023-07-18T21:08:06","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T01:08:06","slug":"life-comes-at-you-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/campus.cru.org\/faculty\/2021\/life-comes-at-you-fast\/","title":{"rendered":"Life Comes At You Fast"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The commercial for a life insurance company uses the line, \u201cLife comes at you fast!\u201d I finally understand what that means.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Growing up in a Christian home, I learned how to pray, read my Bible, and attend church services (excuse the pun) religiously. Unfortunately,  I took God for granted.  I prayed, but didn\u2019t really talk to God. I read my Bible, but never really applied the lessons to my life. I attended church weekly, but only out of habit. You see, I was going through the motions of being a Christian, but I had never really met Christ.<\/p>

Two years ago, life was going good for me. I had just published another award-winning book. I was the president of several organizations; my kids were doing well in school;  I was an academic program director.  My health was good.<\/p>

Within a few months, all of the things that buttressed my spiritual arrogance came tumbling down. I was asked to resign from my director position. I was not re-elected to the presidency of the organization I was leading. My kids started rebelling and engaging in things of which I did not approve.  And then, I was diagnosed with cancer and had to go through a painful operation and 37 sessions of radiation.<\/p>

All of a sudden, the words from that commercial became real to me. Life comes at you fast. Everything that I had hung my faith on was shattered. I thought that because I attended church, prayed, and read my Bible that I was immune to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. <\/p>

So, why was God was humbling me? I had to learn to trust God even while I couldn\u2019t see God.<\/p>

What I have learned through this difficult ordeal is that the Apostle Paul was right. \u201cThe just shall live by faith.\u201dRomans 1:17 I finally understood what Isaiah was saying in Isaiah 6:1, \u201cIn the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.\u201d<\/p>

It was only when I was down, that I learned to look up. It was only when I was sick that I learned to trust the healer. It was when my eyes were blinded with tears that I finally saw God. I had been far too dependent on myself. I thought the key to my success was my skills, hard work, and intelligence, when what I needed to learn was how to depend on God.<\/p>

I have become a much more patient and empathetic professor who asks if I can pray for my students when they come to me with their challenges. I am much less suspicious when students tell me about their heartaches and pains. I have learned the power of grace because when I  was down, I saw God.<\/p>

Christianity is a strange religion because sometimes the best way to win is to surrender.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Abel A. Bartley<\/b>
Clemson University<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The commercial for a life insurance company uses the line, \u201cLife comes at you fast!\u201d I finally understand what that means. Growing up in a Christian home, I learned how to pray, read my Bible, and attend church services (excuse the pun) religiously. Unfortunately,\u00a0 I took God for granted.\u00a0 I prayed, but didn\u2019t really talk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50274,"featured_media":289,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2437],"tags":[2956,2958,2957,2934],"class_list":["post-2414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal-faith","tag-abel-bartley","tag-humility","tag-life-moves-fast","tag-trust"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLife Comes At You Fast - Faculty Commons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/campus.cru.org\/faculty\/2021\/life-comes-at-you-fast\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Life Comes At You Fast - Faculty Commons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The commercial for a life insurance company uses the line, \u201cLife comes at you fast!\u201d I finally understand what that means. 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