Get Back Up
This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally a song, hymn or selection of poetry to tie it all together.
Today's
devotional is taken from: Vujicic, Nick. Limitless Devotions for a
Ridiculously Good Life. Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Press, 2013. pp 106-108.
Opening Thought: The challenge of getting back up is sometimes that needs to be
thought through, we often attribute a resurrection to an emotional appeal, but
emotions can only take us so far. We need to have a balance between emotional
motivation and pragmatic resolution. If we do not take practical steps towards
climbing back up, then we are doomed to fail. I really enjoyed this devotion by
Vujicic today, as it gives a three-step process for getting back on your feet.
1) take stock of your emotions, 2) remind yourself that you have moved through
tough times before, and 3) seek help and give help. I would add a suggest prerequisite for
this process, study goal setting. Goal setting is a wonderful skillset you can
gift yourself. If you set yourself up with a well thought out plan, moving
forward and pulling yourself back up when things go the wrong way will become easier as you will map out
little steps you can work on each day.
The devotional begins with: Isaiah 41:11-13
“Behold, all those who were incensed against you
Shall be ashamed and
disgraced;
They shall be as nothing,
And those who strive with you
shall perish.
You shall seek them and not find them—
Those who contended with you.
Those who war against you
Shall be as nothing,
As a nonexistent thing.
For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right
hand,
Saying to you, ‘Fear not, I
will help you.’
Second Thought: The more you get comfortable pulling yourself up the easier it
gets. One of the things I discovered as someone who has suffered from chronic
pain, is the more I challenge myself to push past pain and continue to enjoy
the gifts and fellowships of life, the easier it is to push my self the next
time. I got a real test to this theory of mine when I was in my mid-twenties,
I had an increase in my blood pressure, which resulted in dizziness and chronic
migraines. My doctor recommended I take a sick leave from work until I could
get the health issues resolved; I was off work for a few months as a result. Like I
said, I had been accustomed to dealing with pulling myself up from pain, but I always
had something to pull myself towards. When I was forced to be at home day in
and day out, I eventually felt so weighed down from never pulling myself up, I
started to not want to. This is why I believe that we need to teach people
actively in our church systems how to stand up, and how be successful in times of
hardship because it can affect our willingness and spirit.
Continual Work: Start looking into goal setting! There are a few motivation
speakers and business programs out there that utilize goal setting, but its not
a hard process. Write down your goals (what does it look like, how will you
function once you achieve your goal) then work your way backwards and map out
all the little steps you will need to achieve your goal, then with each step make
a strategy to achieve that first step, if you fail, recalculate and try again.
What Rev. Jacob is Working On: Today I feel well - life is
good! However, there is always a chance the course of life could change things. Having a
foundation of faith offers a resilience to your story, your goals, and a
purpose and meaning. I will maintain working on my faith for the insurance for
when times get tough.
Scripture time: Job 1:21-22
[Job said] “I left my mother’s
womb naked, and I will return to God naked. The LORD has given, and the LORD
has taken. May the name of the LORD be blessed.”
When we realize we are within the grace of God’s
offering, what we do in the midst of these two points (leaving and returning), there is a chance to bring
glory to the gift from God in thanksgiving, and to enjoy the process. When we
remember what we are aiming for in our goals, it will also help us when we fall
off the path.
Closing Words: I hope you enjoyed and were lifted by this devotional time; it
is truly important to take time for God each day. By doing so, you welcome God
into your life, and in turn you will be able to better see the world through
the eyes of God, rather than God through the world's eyes.
Artistic Close:
This is a homing pigeon, they have an internal navigational
system which helps them find there way
home, we don’t have the same gift, but God gave us a conscience and the Gospel
to navigate us, because our true home and goal is with God.
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