I Can’t This Instant!

I Can't

I can’t snowboard. WHY? Because I’ve never done it. WANT PROOF that I can’t? When you and I hit the slopes together, you’ll see.

I can’t hear. WHY? Because before I turned three years old, my ears lost the ability to hear certain frequencies. WANT PROOF that I can’t? Test results and graphs will show you my mild-to-moderate hearing loss.

I can’t sleep. WHY? Actually, no one knows, not even sleep specialists. WANT PROOF that I can’t? No scientific test will show it, but you’d bore your own self to sleep if you watched a video detailing night after night after sleepless night of my life.

Three different “I can’ts.” One most easy to overcome. The other two – difficult.

The first “I can’t” has an obvious solution with a clear, albeit long, path to getting there. How can I get to the point of saying “I can” snowboard? I have to DO it. I have to make a point to gain the experience, and then keep practicing. I can choose to change my “I can’t” to “I can,” though I will have to step outside my comfort zone to get there.

The second “I can’t” has an obvious, practical solution with a clear and simple path to getting there: wear hearing aids. Let the devices amplify the sounds that I cannot hear, so that I can live a life similar to the one afforded everyone with full hearing. But the ideal solution—full hearing—can only be achieved through a miracle from God.

The third “I can’t” has no specific, practical solution and no charted path to finding one. Again, the ideal solution is simply a miracle: a “light switch” in my brain to flip between awake and sleep. Instead, I have wandered into doctor’s office after doctor’s office, popped pill after pill, altered habit after habit. I’ve knocked on every door, spent thousands of dollars in search of The Solution, and all the while just cried out for that elusive miracle.

Which “I can’t” do you face? Is it the first kind, where you know what your solution is, but haven’t taken the necessary action steps to getting there? Is it the second case, where a work-around solution is available as you wait upon the “impossible” from God? Or, lastly, do you face the kind of “I can’t” where defeat whispers your name every day, and you just don’t know what to do as you long for mercy and relief?

What if your “I can’t” didn’t dictate your disposition? What if, in waiting for God’s miracle, you sought and accepted His often unexpected means of provision along the way?

“And God is able to make ALL grace abound to you, so that having ALL sufficiency in ALL things at ALL times, you may abound in every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13

“For nothing is impossible with God.” Luke 1:37