What Finding Nemo Taught Me About Life

     For those of you who don't know me terribly well, I can be extremely stubborn. And very pessimistic. And a total pain in the butt. Ever since I was a little girl I wouldn't do anything unless it was my idea (even if someone told me to do it first). Annoying for everyone else, I know. Well recently, the Lord has been showing me some pretty uncomfortable things about myself through the eyes of my lovely husband. 

     For starters, stubbornness often masquerades as pride. Depression is easy to use as a crutch for laziness. Sometimes being right gets in the way of being better. Nearly everything is a choice. More often than not, life does not happen to you, you happen to your life. Anything worth having, doing, or becoming has to be worked hard for. Nothing is free or automatic. Difficulty is guaranteed in life. There is no real easy way out. There are always consequences, good or bad. God is standing by you, even when you think you've run as far away as you can. 

     I realize I just spouted off a lot of random thoughts, but that was on purpose. These are things that have been hitting me between the eyes the last twenty-four hours. And yes, I know most of these are pretty obvious, but they haven't been for me recently. I've been too pessimistic and stubborn to really see them and the value they currently hold for my life. But what does this have to do with Jake and Finding Nemo? I'm getting there.
     Much to my chagrin, my wonderful husband is really good at the tough love thing. He tells me what I need to hear regardless of whether or not I want to hear it. Lately there has been a lot of that. I really struggle with calling it quits basically before I even start, fully believing that I am going to fail. (It sounds crazy, but it has a lot to do with what the enemy has been feeding my brain for a while and a lot of stuff I haven't dealt with in my past.)  Pretty much if it takes a lot to reach a goal or challenge, I don't complete it because in my head I've failed before I've even begun. Recently, whenever Jake has suggested me working on something or changing something, I give him every reason in the book why it will fail or why I can't do it. And to be honest, it made me really sick of myself, but I also didn't know how to change the behavior or thought pattern. I didn't know how to have a different outcome the next time. 

     Well today a certain scene from Finding Nemo came to mind and I was shocked how applicable it was to this situation. Watch the clip for a quick refresher. 

     So here was my revelation. I'm a lot like Marlin in the sense that I would rather swim around the trench (aka. problem/challenge/difficulty) or over the trench instead of going through it. Going through means a lot of work. Going through the trench means I don't know what's going to come and it's dark. Going through the trench means that bad things could happen. But do you remember in the movie what happened when Marlin convinced Dory to swim over the trench? They ran into a whole mess of jellyfish. They couldn't have known what bad things awaited them above the trench. It seemed like the easier option at the time, though. I wonder if, while trying to find their way through the jellyfish, Marlin wondered what was in the trench and if it would have been better. In the same way, we all have choices to make. Go through the trench or over it. God, like the school of fish, tells us to go through the trench, through the challenge or difficulty, holding onto the promise that we won't walk through it alone. It won't be easy, but oh the view on the other side is so much better, so much more rewarding. And who knows what kind of jellyfish stings we will avoid by going through?

     Okay, so maybe this was a super stretch. I don't know. But it made sense to me. Though some of the challenges and difficulties I am facing right now are crazy and hard, I know that going through the trench and facing the problems head on are going to be so worth it.