Simply Coping

I sure appreciate the post-WW2 generation and the post-depression era generation because they tend to have an uncommon tenacity. I mean the kind of buck-up, quit your whining, get-er-done mentality. I'd say we need a little injection of that into this present generation... especially the customer service side of life... but that's a subject for another post.

What I was thinking about this morning was how we've been taught to "cope" with our life struggles. In many cases... what is touted out as overcoming something is actually and simply a coping mechanism. But the funny thing is... coping comes in many shapes and forms. Some are deemed acceptable... others are not.

Some use the counseling couch and prescribed medication to cope with life's challenges (typically acceptable)... others use mindless entertainment, alcohol, illicit drugs or even food (typically unacceptable) to cope or satiate their inability to handle life as it comes. Others saturate themselves in academia or a career... others shop till the plastic melts... others redecorate their living space... some simply put a bullet in their head.

The problem is "coping" never ultimately works... it simply buys the person a short burst of time and false feeling of absence from their problems. And this is true regardless of the type of coping mechanism a person uses... to include the more acceptable types.

My questions are these: What if we taught people to stop coping and to start running toward the pain and trials so as to find the root cause? What if we stopped selling religious anesthesia and started up-rooting the lies that cause the bad feelings that dictate the need to "cope"?

Exodus 25:22 (NLT) tells us that God will meet with us at the place where "Mercy" is most needed and He will talk to us... He will communicate with us... He will speak to the need in our lives... and I would suggest and the Bible bears this out... that He will heal and eliminate the need to cope. Jeremiah 33:3 tells us that we are to communicate with Him and He will speak to us and show us mysteries and often very difficult things... but inevitably He will heal us if we only let Him.

Remember... God's sufficient Grace is not a "coping mechanism" it's a healing, empowering, delivering GIFT. So when it comes to coping... the only coping I wanna do is the grinding of it with my skateboard trucks... (for all you ol' grinders out there). Have a great day!