Where did this statement originate? I hear it quite often these days. I don’t like it. Why? Because in the context I hear it used, it is a statement of hopelessness.
“It is what it is” certainly implies or is very direct concerning the reality of a situation.
“That sky is blue – it is what it is.” That’s an unchangeable reality. But that is not the typical context I hear that phrase.
It is used referring human conditions, emotions, actions and the like. It is used as if nothing can be changed. It implies a hopelessness that the situation cannot somehow be corrected or redeemed. It purposes that a human being is stamped with the mark of the inability to change. You are what you are and that’s it. You will act like you act; think like you think; do what you do and “that’s all she wrote”
I choose hope.
“It won’t always be what it is.”
“It is this, but doesn’t have to be that.”
“It is what it is until it isn’t that.”
“It is what it is ’til someone acts and changes things for the better.”
I choose hope, because hope does not dissapoint us. We have reached hope because we have rejoiced in trials, which bring about perseverance, which leads to proven character, that teaches us to stand in hope.
“It ain’t what it ain’t.”
Because of Jesus it doesn’t have to be what it is, was or even might be.
That is not a step into dreamland and detached wishfulness; just the opposite. Wishing implies sitting around and expecting things to change because someone else does something for us because we don’t act. Hope means we are part of the charge, the action, the doing that is possible because Jesus has empowered us to do and be agents of something better then just “what it is.”
HOPE is a reality I can cling to and that IS good news.
Posted by Julie Randolph on May 4, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Eric, that’s great to read and it’s the same kind of thought that whispered through my devotional time this morning. I wrote it down the best that I could first thing in the morning. “Every day I write the story of my life with my actions. Sometimes I only respond to events, people and circumstances; at other times I choose to create or behave in a way that will directly affect the course of my life. The Lord promised His Spirit to all believers and that Spirit is within me now to guide me in the creating, choosing and responding that will be done today and each day.”
Thanks for encouraging us!
Julie
Posted by elucidator1 on May 4, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Thanks Julie. Keep up the good reading and listen to that “still small voice.”
Posted by Esper on May 5, 2009 at 3:17 am
I really like this! Thanks for sharing your brilliant mind with us.