If you’re going through Hell, just keep going!

If you’re going through hell, just keep going!

This is a lyric from one of my favorite songs that just happen to play as I was driving into work today. The song is by Rodney Atkins and the title was inspired by two quotes: one from Winston Churchill (“If you’re going through Hell, keep going.”) and the other, an old Irish toast (“May you be in Heaven five minutes before the devil knows you’re dead”).

This song brought up so much emotion in me and some good reflection on my life that I just had to blog about it.
The last year, and more specifically the last few months have been very hard on my wife and I. Probably one of toughest of our life, and we’ve been through some tough crap. Some of it was due to poor decisions we had made, however the majority of our strife was the direct result of things we just had no control over and no hand in causing. Dealing with situations like that can be o so tiring/frustrating.

BUT and man is this is such a big BUT things have finally started to turn around, and right at the last minute. I won’t go into any details, as they are not the focus of this blog, but prayers have definitely been answered and things in our life are finally starting to fall back into place after seeming to just fall apart for so long.

Back to the title of the blog “If you’re going through hell, just keep going” this has been an anthem in my life and possibly one of life’s greatest lessons we can learn. When I heard it this morning on the radio my thoughts drifted to the kind of attitude that gets you through tough times. Some of my first thoughts were of my high-school football coaches and their attitudes about the weight room and our conditioning program.

The off-season is where you prepare and grow for the coming season. The hard work and dedication put forth in the off-season is what would eventually be evident on the field in game time performance. The old saying ‘the more we sweat in training, the less we bleed in battle’ rings ever so true.

At times a player would be tired or just not feeling well. I remember being in that situation plenty of times and the coaches’ response was always the same: “Matt, right now is when you need to go in and workout the hardest.” “But, coach I don’t feel like it, shouldn’t I lay down and take it easy until I feel better?” “NO! Right now is when you will benefit the most from going in there and lifting those extra reps, running those last sprints.” And then I would begrudgingly go in and workout.

I didn’t understand then, but I do now just what the coaches were trying to do. (another reason I’m a big fan of our young participating in athletics) Those coaches were trying to teach me lessons I would carry for the rest of my life. When life gets hard, you just have to keep going. It would be so easy to lay down, to blame others and be negative; but that’s not how you get through things. You must for lack of better words, soldier on.

In boot-camp I learned to push myself physically to do things I never thought I’d be able to do. I learned the true point of physical exhaustion and how to push yourself past that point to achieve your goal. Learning that physical toughness taught me emotional strength. Emotional strength is what carries you past physical limits. Its what tells you deep down inside your soul, you can get through this, you will succeed.

Most importantly in my life I’ve learned to rely on God. I serve a savior that will never leave me nor forsake me (Hebrews 13:5). A God that has told us to cast our burdens on Him, that He will sustain us (Psalms 55:22, Matthew 11:28-30). God has told us that with Him and through Him there isn’t anything we can’t do (Romans 8:37, Philippians 4:13). The Lord is my rock, and without Him I wouldn’t be here.

I wanted this blog to be an encouragement to those that might be going through a tough time in their life. Just keep going! Keep pushing, keep working your butt off and most importantly keep praying and keep God first. Things will work out, maybe sooner, and more honestly maybe later but they will work out.

I want to leave you with a quote from the last Rocky movie. A lot of folks will think its cheesy, and they may be right, but I like it:

“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you!”