Luke Skywalker begs to be trained as a Jedi. He’s fascinated by the old stories and enamored by the truth and justice that the Jedi stood for. He wants to be valiant, heroic, and honorable. At first, Yoda refuses to train him. Says he’s too old. That must have been a bummer; denied your heart’s desire because you were in the right place at the wrong time—or perhaps the wrong place at the wrong time. Either way, with Obi Wan’s persuasion and Luke’s persistence, Yoda finally agrees.

Amidst their training, Luke’s attention is diverted as his ship sinks even further into the swamp in which he wrecked it. He complains, “We’ll never get it out now!” believing that the ship has sunk too deep. We watch as the ever-wise Yoda tasks Luke with pulling his ship from the swamp using the Force. Luke balks, insisting that he is incapable.

“Always with you what cannot be done,” Yoda shakes his head.

Luke sighs and replies, with obvious reluctance, “Alright, I’ll give it a try.”

To which, Yoda famously responds, “No! Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.”

After a crushing defeated attempt to recover the ship, the young Luke falls to the ground at Yoda’s side. “I can’t,” Luke huffs, “It’s too big.” Even after Yoda’s pep talk, Luke dismisses him with these words, “You want the impossible.”

What happens next? Yup, you guessed it. Yoda proves Luke wrong, pulling the ship entirely out of the swamp and amazing young Luke Skywalker.

“I don’t…I don’t believe it,” Luke says, wide-eyed and breathless.

“That,” Yoda says plainly, “is why you failed.”

This is a timeless scene from a classic movie. If you haven’t seen, begone with you! Go! Seek it out and find this movie! Now, there’s abundant wisdom packed into this one, short scene, but I want to focus on a few things in particular.

We all start out with a dream. Some of us loose that childlike innocence far too soon, and others of us live in naivety far too long. But we all started out with a dream. At some point in our lives, we all believed we could be or do whatever it was that we dreamed.

Then this rotten world slowly but surely stole that hope from us until we each had that moment where we sat as the lowest of the low. You know what I mean. Life is no party. It isn’t all sunshine and rainbows all of the time.

That hopelessness rears it’s ugly head in many forms. It looks different to everyone, but we’ve all felt it at some point. What do you do when you reach rock bottom? They say you’ve got nowhere to go but up, but how do you get up?

Luke’s dream was to be a Jedi. He wanted it with everything in him, and, until he began his training, he believed he had what it took to fulfill that dream. Nearly as soon as he started his training, however, he quickly lost heart. He failed. And because he failed, he believed he would always fail.

I once heard someone present this image to me. I’ve long since forgotten who or exactly how they said it, but it went something like this: instead of wallowing in all of your failures, see them as the stepping stones and building bricks to your success. Imagine each failure as a block, and imagine each block stacked side by side and on top of one another to form a tower. At the top of the tower or staircase or whatever it is you imagined, there is your success. You can’t reach that success without first having failed. Furthermore, you don’t discount your failures, but rather use them to your advantage.

There are many ways to do this, but that is for another post. Yes, Luke had much to learn, and, yes, Yoda taught him a lesson in the nature of attitude and impossibilities. But, what I always thought strange was how quickly Luke gave in. He did put in some effort, but he only tried once. Not only this, but he certainly could have tried harder. Yoda says because of his lack of belief, Luke failed. Luke approached the problem halfheartedly to begin with, but even then, he gave in nearly as soon as he started. At the first hiccup, Luke fell to the ground, whining about how impossible the task was.

Now, I am not a patient person. I never have been. It’s certainly not my strong suit. I’ll readily admit that. But I am stubborn as they come. Luke showed neither patience nor persistence. He so readily gave in when the goin’ got tough, so to speak. He went from dreamer to hopeless.

How did Luke overcome his hopelessness and disbelief? Well, Yoda performed the task and showed him it could be done. But what about you? What do you do when you see no way out? Who’s your Yoda? Where do you turn when you can’t complete your tasks?

Sometimes it’s difficult to trust in God. Sometimes it’s difficult to wait on Him. His timing is certainly not ours and sometimes we become impatient and hopeless waiting. Prayer can soothe that defeated feeling often, but it’s still so abstract that it almost hurts. We fear the unknown and we yearn so strongly for some things that time seems to slow while we wait.

My most recent struggle has been this: Balancing gratitude for what I have and where I am with the deep desire to grow and become all that I am meant to be. Guarding against laziness and inactivity while still trusting in God wholeheartedly. How do I live in contentment and actively pursue my dreams?

I am not using the gifts and talents God gave me to my fullest potential in the job I’m working currently, but I am grateful to have the job. I am thankful for the people there who are supporting me with such understanding and encouraging me in this time of transition, but it is still difficult not to lose hope. I have the qualifications to be in a completely different job, exercising my talents and making twice the money, yet no one will hire me. Why is that?

Sometimes, there aren’t clear answers, but I choose to believe that there is a reason I am here. I choose to believe that God has a plan far richer than any I can imagine. I choose to believe that He gives me the dreams and desires that I have and that they are not in vain. I choose to trust in Him, even when I can’t see my way out, even when I yearn so strongly to be somewhere else. And I choose to make the most of my life as it is. Through God’s grace, my first thoughts as I open my eyes have changed from “Dear God, please no.” and “God help me!” to “Thank you, God, for this day.” It’s not easy, but it is a choice—a consistent and very deliberate choice. I choose to have patience and to trust, even when I don’t feel like my dreams are possible anymore. May you always have hope and may you have patience, young padawans.

Love always,
Coralie