And I wondered what else wasn't set in stone

I am reading the fascinating autobiography of Elizabeth Murray, Breaking Night, where she tells her story of going from homeless to Harvard.   She recounts growing up in the Bronx with parents whose drug addictions were so great that all of the family's scarce resources went towards feeding and nurturing the addiction rather than feeding and nurturing the 2 children.  She and her sister went for days with no food to eat while her parents shot up around the clock.  Because living with hunger had always been her reality, she believed that this was just how it was,  that she would always be hungry.  Then one day she met a boy  who had found ways to hustle money from strangers by offering to pump their gas for a tip.  In so doing, he made enough money to buy things he wanted.  As she watched her friend collect money from strangers, the author tells of realizing for the first time ever that she didn't have to be hungry every day after all.  She had believed she was powerless over her situation until that moment when she saw  the possibility of a different reality.  She writes, "And I began to wonder what else wasn't set in stone."

What an empowering realization- that she could change her situation- and what a great question to ask ourselves!  What do I believe is set in stone that maybe really isn't?  Some things literally can't be changed. They are what they are:  our race, our past, our parents, for example.  But when you think of it, there really is very little that is truly set in stone about our lives.  We can so easily accept as set in stone things that limit us and hold us back because we just can't "see" another reality.

Now I want to be careful here.  What I'm not suggesting is that this is the quick ticket out of a difficult situation.  Its likely that there is a way through such situations that we just haven't seen or realized yet, that we probably have more tools and resources at our disposal than we've realized.  We aren't to simply flee from difficult situations, but with God's help find the power to go through them towards  a better reality.

I think its a question to at least ponder.  Jesus came in part that we might experience the abundant life. Maybe one of the reason's we don't more fully experience the abundant life is because we have simply believed, often unconsciously,  that there are things that are set in stone that really aren't.  We can  intentionally ask God to help us to "see" those areas of our lives that he wants to bring more to.