Foundry United Methodist Church Youth Sunday Testimonies Alexis Chaney
“Such a Time as This” June 1, 2008
	We like the word “impossible.” Every since I’ve been little thee have been countless teachers, mentors and motivational posters telling me to “Do the impossible,” “its only impossible till you try,” “all things are possible.” And maybe I’m the only one, but these never made any sense to me. If nothing was impossible, why did we even have a word for it? Impossible only seemed to be used to show how possible things were. Not to mention there were quite a few impossible tasks that no amount of trying would help you accomplish. I “tried” to fly off the jungle gym, and you can imagine how successful that was. I’ve tried convincing my mom to let me have a puppy for a few years now, but she just laughs at me. I tried reading all of Webster’s dictionary in one day, and managed to get 20 pages into the A’s before boredom struck. But what’s really interesting is that for all of the encouragement to go out and live the impossible life, when someone attempts to try it, they face almost overwhelming negativity and discouragement. You can only attempt a socially approved task that isn’t so much “impossible” as “improbable” at the time. And timing is everything. How many of our great heroes and leaders, who did go on and attempt impossible things, were told to “wait”? How many of our heroes and leaders have we lost because someone told them to “wait” and they listened, and before they knew it, it was too late? We want change and progress, but we want it when we’re ready. The thing is, if it’s truly something life changing, the impossible thing that will change the course of your history, or even just your own, you cannot wait until you are safe, comfortable and buckled in. Revolutions don’t occur because the oppressing group said “We’ve noticed that you seem a little unhappy, go ahead and tell us how you’re feeling, and what you’d like to do about it. We can discuss it later.” Esther did not say, “I will ask the king to save my people, but only when he decides to see me.” She came in unannounced, risking her life; doing the impossible. And she succeeded. Fear will often masquerade itself as your conscience and tell you to “hold on,” “give it a moment,” “sleep on it,” and soon your fear will have won, and you will not have attempted anything at all. You cannot say. “I am going to do something nobody has ever done before, but only once everyone is ready to hear it.” You must strike while the iron is hot; there is a great deal difference between patience, and waiting. Once you find that point you have taken a giant step in the impossible direction. Once you recognize the voice of your fear, and tell it to wait, once you see that they will never be ready for you, and that that mustn’t stop you, once you see that they only thing standing between you and the impossible is your definition of what “impossible” is, once you see all that and still continue forward, you will be unstoppable. All things will be possible. www.foundryumc.org