Hard Knock Life

Before he left for school, Reed and I got everyone to watching and listening to the song and video of It’s a Hard Knock Life from the movie Austin Power’s Goldmember.  It’s really pretty goofy, but we thought it was funny.  If you think it has anything to do with the original Annie version, your expectations are way, way off.  Other than the title of the song, there is nothing similar.

The portion of the original song lyrics from Annie are:

It's a hard-knock life!
Don't it feel like the wind is always howlin?

Don't it seem like there's never any light?

What's a day you don't wanna throw the towel in?

It's easier than putting up a fight.
No one's there when your dreams at night are creepy!
No one cares if you grow or if you shrink!
No one dries when your eyes get wet and weepy

From the crying you would think this place would sink

Of particular interest to me is the line in the middle of the song that I underlined.  I don’t know anyone who hasn’t felt that before, sometimes daily, maybe even hourly.  There simply are times when we feel like we are beat up and tired and we just become unsure how we are going to keep going.    

Contrast that with this portion of lyrics from the song Eye of the Tiger from the movie Rocky III:

So many times it happens too fast
You trade your passion for glory
Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past
You must fight just to keep them alive
It's the eye of the tiger
It's the thrill of the fight
Rising up to the challenge of our rival

This song is all about fighting.  “Going the distance”, “rising up to the challenge”, “hanging tough”, “having guts”, “not going to stop”, and “surviving” are all phrases used in the song. 

These are two completely opposite views, but worldly experience tells me it is really hard to find that internal fight as described in Eye of the Tiger until you’ve experienced some of the reality of It’s a Hard Knock Life.  However, spiritual wisdom says that we have no ability to function in this world until we put the weight of our hard knocks into the right hands.  God says we are unequipped to carry the weights of our sinfulness or the sinfulness of others.  We simply can’t do this no matter how hard we try.  Jesus is equipped to carry them, He even asks for them, all we have to do is let them go.  Once we let them go and have faith that He can carry our concerns and anxieties we are then able to be healed.  The wounds in our heart can be stitched up and those holes where we have felt incomplete can be completed.  God is ready to put us together so we can be made whole through His binding of His Spirit with us.

This relates to hard knock’s and fighting because it defuses both of them.  Some people get very caught up in pride over how hard a life they’ve had and others get caught up in pride over how hard they’ve had to fight.  The truth is, both are incomplete unless they have given up and given everything to Jesus the Savior of humanity.  Life is only found in Him.  There is never another way.  God says:

Breathe because I give you breath.

Eat because I provide the bread.

Live because I give you life

And I will carry all your strife.

Go because I make a way.

Know because I spoke today.

Life is only found in Me

No matter what you think or see.

The song Breathe by Michael W. Smith is very reflective of this.  You can hear/watch it HERE.  Every moment we try to be defeated or we try to fight without God is a wasted moment in our life.  We live in moments of faith until they are connected and every moment is faith.  If there is any work to do regarding our hard knock’s or fight, it must be to connect every moment in faith.  That is the real fight.