Submitted by Lara Cook
At a recent Women’s conference author Ann Voskamp told a story from her childhood where she had, on several occasions, drank mud soup at the command of her young friend while they were playing. She went on to talk about how she had realized that as a 40-something-year-old woman, she was still drinking mud soup:
You end up drinking mud soup whenever you see yourself as the passive victim in your story, instead of an active co-writer of your story, when you act like you don’t determine your responses to a situation — but your actions and responses are determined by somebody else.
You drink Mud Soup whenever you consume what isn’t life-giving good for your soul.
Having the courage to refuse to drink mud soup does not mean refusing discomfort, refusing suffering, refusing hard things and living given and living surrendered and living sacrificially can be life-giving good for your soul.
Sometimes the cup we drink from is suffering — ask Jesus. And you find the abundant life — wherever you turn toward the sign: Welcome to The Surrendered Life.
The only way to the abundant life is to accept discomfort in your life. The way to what we want is often through what we don’t want.
Painfully hard things are part of the price of admission to a purposeful, holy life.
You always have a choice to make a choice.
And you can only be an agent for change in the world — when you believe there’s agency for change in your own life. – Ann Voskamp
Jesus Christ is the only life-giving thing your soul needs and Satan is waiting for every opportunity to force feed us some mud soup. Anything we are feeding into our lives that is not glorifying to God is not life-giving to our soul and as long as we have it in our lives, we will not have the abundant life God wants us to have. Abundance of Him is the onlyway to abundant life.
Are you drinking mud soup? Are you consuming what isn’t life-giving good for your soul? You do have the choice to make a choice. That is the hardest line of all to swallow – that we can choosenot to drink the mud soup any longer. Someone may be angry when you say no more mud soup, but your soul is at stake. Fill your life with only the abundance of Christ and Hislife-giving goodness.
Scripture to Claim:
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10
