The Zone or the Zoo?

• John 16:33 (NKJV) These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Whatever you do, don’t make living in “the zone” or your “sweet spot” your standard or expectation.

Life is great when you’re in the zone and everything is pretty much going your way.  Being able to devote yourself to those things you like and are good at (your “sweet spot”) is wonderful and makes for a satisfying and productive day.

However, most days are more like a zoo than the zone.  The many passages in the Bible that speak in terms of warfare, struggle and exertion should be a warning to you.  If you have to be “in the zone” or can only be happy and productive when you’re in your “sweet spot” then you setting yourself up for a life of misery and rare productivity.

Most days, the norm will be more akin to walking with Jesus in the fellowship of his suffering.  This is not being cynical or negative—this is life.

It is the man and woman who learns to live with this reality and chooses to get up and go another day–even when the getting up and going is not easy, who lives well and finishes well.

“No man was ever holy by a happy chance. Infinite damage may be done by carelessness; but no man ever won life’s battle by it. To let things go on as they please is to let them bear us down to hell.”

_Warren W. Wiersbe, Classic Sermons on Spiritual Warfare p.102