Fun illustration from our first night of Vacation Bible School. I took the easy job and crushed that empty can with no trouble. But the volunteer wasn’t able to crush the full one, of course. What’s the difference? We need something strong, something real inside if life isn’t going to crush us.
1 Samuel 5:4 says, “And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.”
The Philistines absolutely worshipped their false god, their fake god Dagon. But Dagon was nothing but a carved-out fake. And in the presence of the one true God, Dagon fell apart (literally!).
When we have the real God living in us, nothing from the outside can crush us. We might get a little banged up, but we can press on and keep going.