The School Door
More words from Derek about doors that God flings open at Easter time.
“Third door - bottom right. Why a school door? What baggage do you carry from school? Now, I'm not talking about Sunward High, Boksburg High, CBC, St Dominics or whatever else. I mean the school of hard knocks.
Resurrecting Hope: Overcoming the School of Hard Knocks with Easter Inspiration
How many of us are carrying the scars from the school of hard knocks? Bullying at school. Bullying at work. Any victims of bullying at work here? A few. The criticism, the rejection. The loneliness. The friendlessness, the underachievement. We are all victims of the school of hard knocks. Perhaps we could call it the door of our past. The door of where we've come from. All the things that tell us that we are not worthy.
And so we learn to hate. We learn to hide. And we learn to run away. And we learn to hurt in return. And we learn to put ourselves down. And what if today we were to open the doors of the school of hard knocks to the resurrected Jesus. To come out of your past, your school, new. Resurrected. A new you, a whole new hope for Easter.”
You know, the Easter story has always been one of great motivation because we saw Jesus, who went through his own school of hard knocks, so to speak. We saw him get beaten and brutally killed, but we saw how he bounced back. We saw how he burst out of the grave in victory.
Bouncing Back from Hard Knocks: Embracing Faith and Empowering Others
And friends, you and I, with our faith in Christ, can also bounce back from our school of hard knocks. God's not going to protect us from all hurt, but he will help us to get through them. And he will help us to use them for good. And isn't that what Jesus did? He used his hard knocks to save the world.
What could your hard knocks do for others if you fling that door open and walk in victory instead of self-pity? Lives will be changed! Fling the door open and walk out. Christ did it. So can you.
