As five year old boy facinated with nature I was amazed to find wild black berries growing in our acre of backyard woods. Berry after berry my purple stained smile grew larger that is until one fateful berry changed my experience. A ripe large berry caught my eye, but as I had clutched the berry with my stocky little hands, an unexpected buzz and a sharp sting to my palm left me startled, throbbing, and panicked. My joy popped like a baloon leaving shock and pain in its way.
Whether its something as small as a bee sting or something as heavy as betrayal pain happens to all of us. How many times have you failed? Been hurt? Gave up? Gave in? Our response to hurtful situations follows a pattern psychologists like to call "Fight or Flight" meaning our instinct tells us to run for the hills or find a way to bring Godzilla down.
Running is the perferred choice. The best way to save your own skin is getting it out of harm way. So often we choose running in our lives, relationships, jobs, families, education, and community. Instead of embracing our God ordained empowerement to tackle heavy issues we run from the problems and choose to live a cold life in a cold world. But how do you fight pain? How do you hold on? Isn't this too big for us? The answer can be summerized by one of the first words we learn "No!"
The first step is saying no. Empowerement is embracing the potential and power that God all ready designed in you to handle challenging situtions; to get tough when things get tough. We're all designed with the ability to sink or swim, while others are more naturally inclind to water others struggle to doggy paddle; whatever your situation it begins by telling the water it cannot keep you under or make you drowned. Pain does happen to all of us, sometimes its an ocean and others might be closer bathtub but to avoid drownding in both one must keep their head above the water. Somtimes handling pain is as simple as taking control becoming the captain, piolet, explorer, and guide of your life.
Life might get cold, but that's why they invented winter skis.
No comments:
Post a Comment