The importance of patience

A few months ago I preached a series of sermons on spiritual health, you may recall, and we talked about God wanting us to live healthy lives, victorious lives, lives above all else. Lives that despite the trials and struggles, and the disappointments and tragedies of life, can reflect that abundance to which God has called us. And a healthy life is like a healthy body that is made up of many different parts and nutrients, it's not just one thing, it's many things cooperating together.

You can be very well in 99% of your body but if a certain acid or a hormone is missing, or a gland is not working well, no matter how small, if there is a chemical that is missing, that lack of that .1 % or whatever affects in a significant way and the rest of the health, and so is the emotional and spiritual health as well. It is made up of many different pieces and parts that all together essentially produce a healthy person. It does not mean that we are perfect but that we can function well in life, that we can be happy, that we can bless others, that we know that God loves us and that we can be victors in the midst of trials and struggles.

We were preaching for twelve or more Sundays about that and so I wanted to give them a break and get into other things, and other topics as sometimes happens but I felt from the Lord this morning so take one and who knows if the next Sundays many topics were left without try, and so today I want to share with you the topic about patience, because patience and persistence in life are tremendously important to achieve our dreams, our goals, to improve in the areas that we have to improve.

How many of us have spent years struggling with an area of our lives that prevents us from walking, that slows us down, is an obstacle to our faith and our well-being, we have spent years and sometimes the tendency is like throwing in the towel; did you know? I'm tired, I can't change, I can't overcome this defect and then how to resign ourselves and abandon ourselves to the things that overwhelm us.

In other cases we also have a dream, a vision that we want to achieve: we want to buy our house, we want to get a degree that will help us in our profession, we want to travel to Europe because we want to visit that continent and we need to save for it but it doesn't give us money and we never have the money we need, we want to overcome some area of our temperament, or some dream we want to achieve. We want to lose weight, how many say amen? You don't have to say it, do you? (laughs).

There are simple things, we want to learn to play an instrument, for example. All of those things require patience, they require persistence, and they require that if we fall off the bike we pick it up and get back on it, and keep going until we achieve our goals.

Never give up on anything because if He has given you the vision He will make sure that you reach the end, but you can't give up, you can't "cuitear" as the Puerto Ricans say, you can't abandon the field of battle, you have to keep up. The Bible says once you put your hand to the plow don't take it back, keep it there and keep going. And I have discovered that one of the most important resources for emotional and spiritual health, and to achieve our goals, and also to overcome life's problems, because that is something else too. Sometimes we have some struggles and some burdens, there are problems that are like tumors that are there preventing the flow of God's Grace in our life, a marriage that is not working well, a disobedient and prodigal son, a disease that we do not find the a solution, a disease that we can't find a solution to, a health condition that requires us to just take a pill every day because we have prayed and the Lord has decided not to work supernaturally, then we have to deal with these things. There are things in life that are also burdens and difficulties that we have not been able to overcome that also require patience.

Not only that but in the Christian life as well. There are moments in the Christian life when wow, we feel filled with the Power of God and the Grace of God. We come to Church and our tank is full, and we worship the Lord with ease and we jump, and we feel like wow, God loves us and everything is fine, but sometimes we come and we get up, and there's like a cloud, the sky It's cloudy and there's no sun anywhere right? and we do not feel that joy of the Lord, that exuberance, that passion for the things of God.

Does it mean that God loves us less at that time? Does it mean that we are less children of God? No. There are simply days when the day is cloudy like today, but the Lord is always there loving you and you need patience, says the Bible: "to walk lightly the race of faith."

Why does the Bible compare many times with marathon runners? because the Christian life is like a marathon: 26 miles and something, and there comes a time when one feels totally devoid of energy, and the only one who reaches the end and wins is the runner who is able to overcome the exhaustion , the exhaustion, the pain of the muscles and the scream of the body that tells it: stop and give up, and that simply continues pushing, persisting, patiently running the race of faith. Faith is a race and for all that patience is required.

If you don't develop patience you will never be able to reach your goals because every great goal, every great vision in life requires patience, requires that we persist, that we overcome even one thing that causes us to stumble a lot, you know what? emotions, emotions and feelings. Emotions are one thing that betray us all the time because many times, as the Lord Jesus Christ says: "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" and sometimes what is discouragement, low self-esteem, tiredness and emotional exhaustion , having waited too long for the arrival of the vision that we encourage and that we store in our hearts, since it kind of makes us feel discouraged and discouraged, and then the tendency is to throw in the towel because we are taking emotions, and emotions They are like spoiled little animals that if you let them rule your life you will never achieve anything great.

The person who achieves his goals is the person who can overcome his emotions and that despite the emotions telling him: look, stop doing that or do what you want, one says: no, because the principle that I have embraced and the The truth of God that is in me prevents me from giving in to that cry of my emotions and my body or my appetites and I am going to obey the Word of God, the principles of the Kingdom of God and then you persist, and go ahead, and not is carried away by emotions. All of these are elements that I believe are necessary to lead a successful life and a powerful and healthy life in the Lord.

Habakkuk chapter 2. And what I'm going to do by the way is, I'm going to read, you know what? periodically I have read segments of a book that I am working on but have left it for a while, however God has wanted that from time to time I choose a passage from that book and share it with you, it is my heart speaking to you and I want you to take it as part of the Word of God for your lives, although I am going to read it but it is written from an experience, and I know that it will be a blessing for your lives, and it is based precisely on that theme of patience .

Habakkuk chapter 2 talks about persisting in the vision and the visions that God gives us. In verse 2 of chapter 2 it says: "The Lord answered me and said: Write the vision and declare it on tables so that he who reads in it may run." A vision is something that we see, right? and that many times God gives us visions about the future that we want and long for, it is a powerful desire, it is a goal that we have and God says: Write it down and declare it so that whoever reads it may run.

But here is what I want to touch on, verse 3 says: "Although the vision will take a while" there is the thing, when things take time to arrive. When God gives us a dream about something good in life, sometimes the arrival of that vision takes time, the realization of that dream that we have and then the Lord's advice is this, he says: "Even if it takes a while, don't worry. don't worry, it hastens to the end" in other words: the vision is going to come to an end, it is going to come to fruition. "He won't lie; even if it takes time, wait for it, because it will certainly come."

And it's interesting, he says: it won't be long, he says that even if it's late, in other words, even if you've waited a long time, don't worry, it's going to arrive right around the corner. I was thinking of a passage of Scripture this week where it says, "Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart; yea, wait for the Lord." You have to wait for Jehovah, you have to wait for the fulfillment of dreams to come. Although the desires that we have had to improve in life take time, do not abandon your dreams, keep fighting, keep fighting. If you fell get up, wipe your knees and come back again, and keep going because the vision, if you persist the Lord will make sure you don't fail and don't come to shame. So Habakkuk 2:3 introduces a very important element in this vision: although the vision will take a while yet, says Habakkuk, but it hastens to the end and will not be long.

Many times God puts dreams in our hearts, desires and projects, and plans that are not for the present moment but for a sometimes distant future, God is never in a hurry. That is something that I have learned, that unfortunately God takes His time for things, He is neither too late nor too early, amen? He is always on time, in the moment. God patiently, organically, creates from the inside out, putting one piece on top of the other with full intentionality.

Do you know that God is a craftsman? Do you know those well-trained carpenters that you tell them to do a sloppy job and no matter how much you tell them they can't because they work fine? we were talking about that, I know two or three here in the Church like that. You tell them: look hurry up because we are in a hurry and put a nail in there, don't worry because that will be covered, nobody will see it but they say: uh huh, uh huh and they continue doing exactly as they know how. They cannot make a mess or get killed, they are meticulous, meticulous people of excellence and God is like that, God is a craftsman who takes His time creating visions.

We are in a hurry many times and what we want is quick results, God takes His time, He puts one piece on top of the other with total intentionality, He takes His time to create a beautiful vision. That is why the writer of Ecclesiastes declares: "Everything has its time, and everything that is wanted under heaven has its time" that is in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 1. Psalm 1 says that: "The man or woman blessed by God bear their fruit in their season." When the fruit of your life is born in God's time, it will be delightful and attractive, perpetually renewable because the very life of God will be beating within that fruit that God will allow to be given in your life.

When God is working in a life nothing happens by inertia or by accident, nothing is superfluous and nothing is lacking, in God there are no excesses or exaggerations. Everything that He allows to intervene in the elaboration of your vision and your dream, everything that seems an obstacle or an interference, everything He is allowing with a purpose, is exactly what is required. Although our rush to see that vision realized seems like the moment of victory is taking far too long to arrive; someone who knows what he is talking about speaks to them.

There have been visions in my life, I have told you before, they are still there after decades and they still haven't come true, and one has to just keep serving the Lord while the vision that God has placed in one comes every day. Many times we become obsessed with what we have not received that we forget what we have received, what we have around us. We think about it so much that we have not achieved it that we forget that God has blessed us with so many good things around us; We have husbands, sisters, children who love us, a good job, health, good friends, the peace of the Lord in our lives, reconciliation with God, the security of our eternal destiny, so many things that God gives us but we are obsessed with what we we do not have, that we have not achieved, that we do not receive. We focus so much on that part that there are so many other things around us that are such a blessing to our lives.

Even if it seems like it's been too long since you've asked the Lord for something, keep going, don't focus on what hasn't arrived yet. Never give up on a vision because it has taken too long to come true. Many times God's visions require a long journey before becoming a reality. Like Abraham who had to prophetically walk the land that his descendants were to occupy many centuries after his death, we will often have to travel great distances in time and space before our aspirations become reality.

Abraham walked the land that his descendants three hundred plus years later were going to occupy and he never saw that land in his hands, he never knew his descendants, the promise that God gave him he never saw fulfilled, he simply died with a promise. He walked the earth and by walking it he was marking it for what was to come after him. Many times we have to do many tests before what God has promised us is given. We will have to experience and suffer many failures and vicissitudes before entering the Promised Land that God has declared on our spirit.

It may be a long time before we can cherish in our arms the Isaac that God has promised us. However, in this forced but fertile march, we will collect an immense amount of resources and experiences that will be necessary to conquer the territory that we have proposed and above all to consolidate and retain it.

Do you know something, that if right now God gave you the vision that you have, the dream that you have, the desire that you have, he gave it to you right now, perhaps it would do you some harm? because perhaps you are not prepared to retain what He gives you and then perhaps God is preparing you so that when the time comes for you to achieve your dream then you can retain it. How many people win the lottery and after six months they are beggars again because they were not prepared for all those millions that came to them? I know what you are saying: well I would like to try that even if it is me (laughs) and if I fail, Lord, help me, right?

But the truth is that many studies have been done, there are people who win the lottery and do damage, and waste money. People come who promise them villas and castles, that they invest here, that they invest there, their relatives come to ask them for money and they begin to give this here and there, and in six months they are worse off than they were before, why? because money came to them but wisdom did not come with it, and sometimes God prefers to work within us: putting the pieces in place, laying the foundations, the secure piles so that he can then give us so that the building can be maintained when it arrives. moment, which is why God is a systems thinker.

And we don't know sometimes what God is doing behind the scenes. We only see what is not there, what did not come, but we are not seeing God sowing and preparing below the surface, and working on us, and working on our home, our children, defects, emotions, preparing us for the glory that He has destined for us.

The apostle Paul warns us that to be crowned, in other words to reach the full realization of our dreams, we have to fight, he legitimately says, Second Timothy 2:5. Fighting legitimately means not taking shortcuts, it means going through the long and arduous process that requires a vision, taking to the bottom the cup of personal crucifixion that prepares and enables us for the triumph that we so long for.

The visions that God installs in our hearts frequently require an arduous and detailed process of development, there are rules and principles that have to be obeyed, there are things that have to die in us, debts that have to be paid, character traits that have to be removed or set on us. Through suffering, struggle, or failure, our inner being has to be adjusted to the magnitude and complexity of the vision we have conceived.

Think for example of Moses. Moses was prepared as Israel's deliverer from the foundation of the world. He was born into a Hebrew family and God arranged for him to remain and grow up inside Pharaoh's palace as a prince. God was preparing his intellect, his character, his resources as a statesman because God had a mission for him, to take a people of more than a million people and transport them from a desert to a land that He had prepared for it, and that The leader was going to be a political leader, a spiritual leader, and that's why God had to prepare this man.

For 40 years he prepared him intellectually and prepared him as a warrior and as a leader, and after 40 more years he put him in the desert to create in him humility, meekness, patience, dependence on God, there in the desert Moses' dreams of being a liberator, he thought: I was wrong, I failed and God had no plans for me, and yet God was working on him, on his character, preparing him so that he could carry out the task. Imagine if an impetuous Moses and full of manly spirits and all this, would say a difficult people and as rebellious as the Jews were; I believe that they would have killed all of them in the first month and there would not have been any that had entered the Promised Land.

God had to create a patient man for himself and he created that in the desert there in the starry nights of the desert, in silence, driving goats and learning that he was nothing, and then when he was there ready, at eighty years old he called him brother According to the vision that he had put in her heart, that is the God who takes time for things, right?

Sometimes God has to work a lot on the preambles before giving us what He wants for us, and we cannot rush God's processes. We must not try to evade the crucifixions and waiting stations that will arise on the way to the summit. When we have the prize we will have to have run the race without traps or shortcuts.

God is a God of processes, of intertwined stages that are fulfilled one after the other in a coherent order, all this requires time. The beautiful symphony of a purposeful life is not realized overnight, it requires an ability to see the long term, to wait patiently, as the Word says, "until the soul dawns." The psalmist says: "I waited patiently for the Lord and he bowed down to me, and heard my cry."

Even if the vision takes longer than expected, we must wait patiently until God leans towards us, extends His scepter to us and grants us the long-awaited triumph. If the vision is authentic and comes from God, He will ensure that the time of its realization arrives. In times of drought and waiting, when we almost faint and abandon the vision, God whispers to us: "Even if it takes a long time, do not abandon her, she hastens to the end and will not lie."

Patience is one of the most important sibling prerequisites for crafting a fruitful life, a life of success and influence requires the slow fire of long-term training. Many components have to be added to our personality, many accumulated experiences are required to produce the poise of maturity, the balanced character, the observant gaze, the sobriety that is not easily impressed.

Do you know brothers that there is something that unfortunately cannot be rushed, and it is wisdom? poise, sobriety, discernment, and unfortunately when we reach a measure of poise and sobriety and self-control it is almost time to die, that is the tragedy of man, right? that is required there to simmer wisdom. You say, wow, I wish I had the vitality of a 25-year-old and the wisdom of an 80-year-old, if one could combine the two, but unfortunately it takes time to acquire certain things before God can do His work in us. and that is why we have to arm ourselves with patience.

If you have a big dream in your life, something you want to achieve, prepare for the wait, prepare for the race and arm yourself with faith and hope, and patience, and when you feel ready to throw in the towel say: no, not yet one more step, two more steps because the Lord has plans for my life and He wants to work in my life.

Calvin Coolidge was President of the United States and he wrote the following regarding patience and persistence as essential ingredients for success, a very successful man, President of the United States, listen to what this wise man said. He said: "Nothing in this world can replace persistence. Mere talent cannot, there is nothing more common than very talented unsuccessful people", it is true. How many people do you know out there who are very talented but haven't gotten anywhere? because what they have is only talent. "Neither can genius, genius without reward is almost proverbial", in other words there are very brilliant people, geniuses, but you see them as failures in terms of professional success and other things because their genius is not accompanied by an example of gifts with people, they are eccentric, they are impatient with others, they cannot tolerate others who are not as intelligent as they are, and so they fail in life while there is a Donald Trump out there (laughs) who is like a top just hitting laps a hundred thousand miles an hour and makes millions of dollars right? and a Ronald Reagan that one would say: wow this man was not a great brain, however he was one of the great statesmen of this nation, Menino himself, mayor who died with great glory here in Boston; a man who spoke as if he were a truck driver and yet he was brilliant, he had PhDs working for him because he had a gift with people and had mafia wisdom and very useful in politics, because they are other tools, not just intelligence No?

"Genius without reward is almost proverbial. Neither is education, the world is full of ruined educated people. Only persistence and determination" says Coolidge "are omnipotent. The saying: "keep going" has solved and always will solve the problems of humanity. human race."

I wanted to show you a video and I think I'm going to have to leave it because I want to be judicious and, but it's a very eloquent video and you can see it at another time. But I'm going to tell you the story about the case; And sorry Javier that I put you to work early in the morning with the video but you are a patient man and I know you will understand (laughs), look at how I emotionally bribe people many times, right?

Some time ago I read about the case of Tony Meléndez, a young Nicaraguan who was born without arms as a result of a medicine taken by his mother during pregnancy. In his childhood, his parents moved to the United States in order to provide him with better medical care for his condition. At some point during his childhood, Tony Meléndez began trying to play the keyboard and guitar with his feet; He had no arms but as a child he started trying to play the guitar with his toes and you can look him up on YouTube, Tony Meléndez. After many years of practice, Tony developed such dexterity on the guitar with his feet that he went on to sing and play in public places, impressing everyone with his rare ability.

Tony rediscovered his Catholic faith as a young man and became actively involved in his local church program. He became so popular in the Catholic circles of his city that he came to participate musically up to five times a Sunday in different masses in the area. He gained the attention of influential people, including one of the people tasked with organizing Pope John Paul II's visit to the United States in 1987. Says Tony: "Even though someone got my name out of somewhere and asked me to attend a meeting " recalls Tony in his biographical note, "I wasn't sure what it was about" and it turned out to be an audition for the event, and Tony was accepted.

He says: "I was very excited when I found out." Tony's performance singing and toe-tapping himself on the guitar so impressed John Paul II that he leapt out of his seat before a crowd and world cameras, stepped out of his seat, stepped off the dais, and planted a kiss on the surprised man. singer, and then encouraged him to continue inspiring crowds with his gift of patience and persistence. The Pope's words were of great encouragement to him and transformed his life and his musical career.

John Paul II told Tony: "Tony, you are truly a brave young man, you are giving hope to all of us. My wish for you is that you continue to give hope to all people." The auditorium erupted with enthusiastic applause and since then, Tony has traveled all over the world and has sung in places of great distinction, winning all kinds of prestigious awards that recognize the quality of his music and the great inspiration that is his life. for so many people.

Do you know something brothers? Those people who go around the world reaching goals, achieving extraordinary things in their lives, conquering mountains, overcoming their flaws and personality every day and achieving seemingly impossible things like Tony Meléndez, generally have that common denominator of patience and persistence. . Even if things take time, they are able to persist in the vision.

One day God remembers the vision that has been beating within you, calls it by name and brings it to life to take its place among the props that strengthen the world, but it takes patience and faith to believe that if the vision is true and comes from God, it will not remain hidden forever, but in due course God will redeem it from anonymity and give it its place among the other visions that adorn the world.

How many years will it have taken Tony Meléndez to learn to play the guitar with his toes? Right now in your mind, try to imagine yourself plucking the strings of a guitar lying on the floor with your big toe while pressing the other strings into the appropriate place, the fingerboard, with your other fingers. It would seem impossible, but through years of hard learning, little by little Tony's brain adjusted to perform this feat. God has endowed man with amazing flexibility and potential.

By the way: this morning I was meditating on this, I searched YouTube: there is an impressive video of a beautiful young Mexican woman, her name is Adriana, who also has no arms, she was born without arms and the video is titled: "Adriana the invincible", I encourage you to look it up, it's about a twenty-minute program about her life and her biography, and how this beautiful girl overcame, and she uses her toes and feet as if they were hands; What's more, sometimes the camera focuses on the fingers and one is not sure if they are feet or hands, because her fingers have acquired such dexterity, she writes, draws, texts with her toes, cooks, I imagine she will wash her feet well before cooking, she's married to a gorgeous man and all without arms, it's incredible, it's something like this girl was out of the ordinary, her name is Adriana, Adriana the invincible. She is an amazing global motivator.

They are people who learned to overcome with patience, they did not give up. God has endowed man with amazing flexibility and potential. Every day psychologists and neurologists show us the amazing plasticity of the human brain, our neurological cabling adapts to the tasks we assign it and develops new circuits in obedience to the goals we undertake steadily throughout life. I'm finishing now.

I am sure that if Tony Meléndez had a brain test when he died, it would be discovered that there is a part of his brain that is more developed than the average of other people, that part will have to do with the coordination of the toes. Over time, Tony's brain determined that this part of his neurological structure needed more resources because it was giving it more sophisticated tasks than normal. Through persistent practice Tony was able to operate on the very structure of his brain and develop the resources necessary to realize his amazing vision.

Let me give you an illustration about this: we are on a trip, Meche and I, and we are using Meche's car that she already has programmed for, this is something simple but notice how sometimes inertia prevents one from developing something , and fear. So, she has her cell phone programmed in the car so that when she uses the cell phone, well, the car, through BlueTooth, that technology, the car's horn, well, it lets you hear aloud what is happening, whether you use music or is talking to someone, you know how that works, but she never learned because my son-in-law did that, he programmed her so that her phone was there inside the horn of the car, but, not her phone inside the horn but the sound from the phone (laughs).

But the fact is that: many times when I get into her car I want to use the music that is on my cell phone or whatever neither of us knew how to program the blessed car to include my phone, and during For so many months, brother, we have suffered only listening to her phone but thinking that it was difficult and that it is not possible, and that one never has the time and leaves it like that until, coming now, we say: you know what? look to see if the manual is there inside the compartment of the car, and yes there was the manual, simple directions and I told him: look when we get to one of these stations, a stop on the highway we are going to stop and we are going to program the rebel cell phone ok, let's do something here.

Know what? we stopped brothers and literally in less than 3 minutes my cell phone was talking through the horn of Meche's car, we came the rest of the trip listening to different music, I do not go into details there (laughs), I know that she is listening, maybe later I'll get into trouble, but nothing, 33 years of suffering.

The case is brothers, that many times one thinks: no, my brain, how many people say: no, I can't deal with technology? my brain doesn't work for computers and cell phones, and for iPhones and iPads, and we live limited in an area of life that is very important in these times, technology, but it's like there's something that tells me: I can't, my brain is not Look: your brain is as good as your neighbor's, isn't it? It's not like God made you with a glitch there that you can't use technology, you can. Now, it's like everything: it takes a little time, right? you use a keyboard first and then you do something else and tomorrow you do something else, in six months you are texting like a twelve-year-old teenager, honestly.

Everything is in one to begin the process, and when one begins the process the brain itself is teaching one the way, it is incredible. God has made us so flexible and what we have to do is start the journey, persist, not give up, believe that if God is against us, who is against us? that we can do everything in Christ Jesus.

Do you think that when Paul said: I can do all things through Christ, he was not also thinking of the computer, the Holy Spirit who said it? of course. I'm going to leave it here because I'm not going to, I want us to focus on that and leave with a new spirit.

Brother: in the Name of Jesus lower your head and I want to encourage you to arm yourself with faith. If your dreams have not yet come true, if you are contemplating a path that seems impossible to cross, if there is a struggle in your life that you say: no, I will not be able to reach it, in the Name of Jesus you can, you can with the power of Christ and with the persistence, faith, hope, patience of Job. Give yourself time, start the race and if you stumble, get up again and come back, and trust that the Power of God within you will find a way out.

I believe that God is speaking to many people this morning, I feel from the Lord that many of us need encouragement this morning and I want to bless you with this conviction that there is in my Spirit that God has placed in my heart, and with this Word that God has brought for you this morning, that you are not going to fail, and not only are you not going to fail but that you are going to win, amen? Receive it in the Name of the Lord, it is God's promise for your life, for your struggles, the war you are fighting, be it family, be it professional, be it health, whether it involves your marriage or your children, whether it involves your work or your studies, the defects in your life, your emotions, the burdens that you have, the dreams that have not come true.

In the Name of Jesus I want to give you an injection of hope today and invite you to continue the race, invite you to put your hand on the plow again and move on because with Christ Jesus by your side you are going to win, there is no fight that you You can't get over my brother, my sister, believe the Lord. The problem is not God, the problem is us who believe God, so in the Name of Jesus, receive this as, it is not the Word of man, it is that God is speaking to you and is telling you: I am with you, I am not I will leave, I will not forsake you, I am with you every day until the end of the world, I have purposes for your life, I love you, I have you carved in the palm of My Hands, the thoughts I have for you are good and not badly, I am going to bless you, no one will make fun of you, no one will be able to face you. I am going with you says the Lord.

I have given you the land that the soles of your feet tread on, says the Lord, do not worry about the future, and when you feel worried, remember the Word of the Lord again: "Be anxious for nothing" and I want to say that to myself to myself right now: Roberto Miranda be anxious for nothing but let your requests be known says the Lord, let your requests be known with all prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving celebrating by faith what God is going to do in your life in the Name of the Lord. God is encouraging us brothers this morning, God is encouraging us. Take new strength in the Name of Jesus, new strength for your life, hallelujah.