The word “impossible” is a word concocted by men so that we might have some tasteless verbiage to describe the way that we’ve surrendered to our limitations. But if we’re walking with God attempting to justify surrender is itself impossible, so maybe we should trash the verbiage and embrace our God.

The problem that I think I have with God is often not a problem at all. Rather, it is most frequently a tired misperception where I have made God what I need Him to be in order to justify my rejection of Him.

My first mistake is to humanize God. My second mistake is to hold those wretched human characteristics up against all of the majestic things that I sense God should be. The blatant discrepancy which is certain to ensue then allows me to not only justify my rejection of Him, it grants me unbridled permission to discount His existence altogether. And that third and final mistake is without a doubt the most costly of all.

Ignoring is that magical slight-of-hand where we make something disappear by simply ceasing to acknowledge its existence. But we must remember that slight-of-hand never results in dead-and-gone.

Because we refuse to acknowledge something doesn’t mean that it’s not staring us right in the face.

Just putting a sign on the road does nothing to change where that road is going.

You can dress up greed, but you can’t stop the stench.

Denial is the escape that never allows us to escape.

I can rather effectively protect myself from failure by crafting genuinely convincing rationales that justify my unwillingness to try. But I might consider the fact that an action such as this is the real failure. And there’s no protection in that.