finish strong - when you leave all that you know for the unknown: the next nine points in a series of more
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| With SIR in Port Moresby after our last Kodiak flight from Aiyura valley |
A few days ago I began a series of posts about how to leave the mission field well. I have had some encouraging feedback and apparently these things apply well to other areas of other peoples lives and circumstances too. Go figure, that’s my God. Always making use of what we feel like is specific to us and our circumstances to bring honor and glory to Himself alllllllll over the place. He’s so good like that.
With that being said I wanna jump straight back into my lengthly list of ways to finish strong, but I want to preface it with this: give grace to yourself and remember that God loves you where you are. Don’t beat yourself up, but rather allow God to meet you in your circumstances.
Here are the next nine points in my series of more on how to finish strong:
11. Avoid self-worship and the idolatry of your pain and your negative circumstances. This can only be done by intentionally shifting your worship back to the One your worship is due. Your saviour. Your God. Your provider. Your promise keeper. Acknowledge who He is and worship Him. Intentionally avoid worshipping the idolatry of your pain. Set your focus on Him and who He is. Surrender those things back to Him by seeking Him. Yes, you need to process and feel your way through what you are dealing with (and you will need to continue to beyond this point!) but don’t disrupt the balance by letting your only focus be on you. Offer your circumstances and emotions back to the One who is in control. Trust Him with your pain. He will use it for your good and His glory.
“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.” Romans 5:3-5 NLT
12. Take care of yourself. Remember to make force time to exercise, sleep, drink water, eat healthy foods and maintain boundaries. Do not (only, cause let's be real) self soothe.
13. Are you married? Trust your spouse. Pray with them. Speak truth to them. And do not assume they know that you are rooting for them, but rather communicate it clearly and directly to them and to others (!). Choose to be undivided. You are more than likely facing a lot of opposition from the outside, so intentionally do not allow your situation to be something to bring division to your marriage. Let God use this to strengthen your marriage. (This probably will mean letting small things -that feel really big- go.)
14. Are you a parent? Love your kid(s) and love them individually. What they need most now is to be loved. Do not assume they know that they are loved. Tell them and then show them! Make time to show them their value, remembering to give them grace as they walk through this. Listen to them. Ask them to speak up and then give grace again while you listen. Help and love them through this - they need you.
15. Do not cast blame, but do not abandon truth. (Giving grace does not mean abandoning truth!) It will be sooooooooo tempting to blame your circumstances on others, but choose not to engage pointing your fingers at people and broken systems. This will be hard and you may fail again and again, but give yourself grace when you do and then rest in God’s sovereignty. God may choose to use your circumstances to bring change, but that's on Him. Feeding your self-righteousness by blaming others will not aid your circumstances.
16. Be humble. Your life is completely centered around you / your current trauma, but choose the humble road anyways. (Remember that humility is not beating yourself up.)
17. Survive; thriving is completely overrated right now. (Rule #1)
18. Feel (yes, you may have to choose to do this too - some of us more than others) your emotions, but do not (over) react from them. Your life most likely does suck and you for sure have loads of emotions from all over the spectrum, but you still have the choice on how to act. Your emotions do not control you. You can (with the help of the Holy Spirit) control how you act from your emotions. Decide in advance not to react.
"But you belong to God, my dear children... the Spirit who lives is you is greater than the spirit that lives in the world" 1 John 4:4 NLT
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