Hey there!
In a change to how things have been done the last two Faith Filled Fridays, this week's devotional comes from the heart without the associated audio production with it. In other words, for this week only, and because I haven't had time to do it, there will just be a posting on my thoughts on a particular issue.
This week, it's words.
I've already covered and you are already aware that as a driver, you go where you are looking. Well, today I'm going to argue the case that you go where you are speaking...
Crafting the Norm
Episode #0002 of Sixty Seconds of Faith put across the idea that you get what you are looking for, or you get what you are speaking. So speaking with someone who's been battling with depression on and off for the past seven or eight years, would suggest that I may or may not have been creating this future for myself intentionally!
WRONG!
As anyone knows who's been there before, this issue for me has been going on now for quite some time and it became so 'the norm', as it were, that I thought my life would always be peppered with thoughts of despair like that. I didn't realise, in this case because of lack of knowledge, that life could change, that things could get better!
I had been busy creating a world for myself that was full of self-reliance because of these feelings of abandonment that I'd created out of nothing, all because I had decided that how things looked was how they were.
I have trust issues. That much is undeniable and I am working on that, which is where admitting that I had a problem is a massive compromise for me. I use the word 'compromise' carefully because opening up to someone is not something I can officially say that I am comfortable with.
'Honesty is the best policy' - is that what they say?
Well not for me it wasn't because these issues that had gone untapped were one's that I thought were my battle to deal with, my cross that I must bear every day.
Do you see the power of words at work here?
This Is My Confessional II
In this case it most definitely was not the power of the spoken word but of the 'thought' word. For by creating a world where I say to myself 'trust no one', I was keeping my own personal space at the forefront of what I did and thus minimising the risk to myself of getting hurt.
It ran deeper than that and managed to convince me that my fu... my messed up existence that I was creating meant that I was forever on the outside of love.
It's brave of me to admit this because I have told no one of these issues, but that is what happened to me. I thought I was some kind of super freak from another dimension who's only chance at romantic happiness would come if someone found me and truly 'got' me.
But if I hide the real me, who sees it? Or to quote Arnold Schwarzenegger in one of his films; "if I'm not me, who the hell am I"?!
Well you could definitely say that this song sums up the life that I was building perfectly: -
'My shadow's the only one that walks beside me, my shallow heart's the only thing that beating' - that lyric haunts me even to this day because this was the reality I was creating by myself, my thoughts, my words, my actions.
But did I do any of it deliberately? HELL NO!!!
Who in their right mind would do that?!
All of these actions were going together to build up for me what I thought was a powerful future, when in actual fact were leading me to a mediocre life, or not the best life that I can possibly live.
You see what happens when you don't live an on purpose life? Issues get created that run so deep that to tear them up would be akin to ripping up the foundations of who you are as a person.
Man, that goes against what I believe as a Christian too because all of that, every single part of it that I was creating, doesn't go towards the kind of life that I have been called to live: -
Let me set this before you as plainly as I can. If a person climbs over or through the fence of a sheep pen instead of going through the gate, you know he’s up to no good—a sheep rustler! The shepherd walks right up to the gate. The gatekeeper opens the gate to him and the sheep recognize his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he gets them all out, he leads them and they follow because they are familiar with his voice.They won’t follow a stranger’s voice but will scatter because they aren’t used to the sound of it.”
Jesus told this simple story, but they had no idea what he was talking about. So he tried again. “I’ll be explicit, then. I am the Gate for the sheep. All those others are up to no good—sheep stealers, every one of them. But the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the Gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for—will freely go in and out, and find pasture. A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of. John 10:1-10 (emphasis added)
Do you see that? 'More and better life than they ever dreamed of'!
How is thinking you're some kind of off the chain bandit that no one will get, no one will understand, no one will love, going to help you going forward?
Answer: It isn't!
These are limiting factors that are designed to keep me from looking up for my help and accepting a mediocre life as something that is all there is worth living.
Final Thought
In closing then, let me reinforce what I've said here tonight with another verse from the Bible: -
So be careful how you act; these are difficult days. Don’t be fools; be wise: make the most of every opportunity you have for doing good. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to find out and do whatever the Lord wants you to. Eph 5:15-17 (emphasis added)
It clearly helped me see things from a brighter side, writing a song I've called 'Screaming', so what I'm going to suggest to you is that you periodically keep track of the direction that you are going in. Take a digital thermometer reading of just how hot your life is running, or how honestly you are living.
Keep track of your own wellbeing because being a three-part persona like we all are, all three parts must be looked after to ensure a full and prosperous life is likely to be attained; mind, body & spirit.
Do this on a regular basis and I believe that you, like me, will continue to rise to the top!
#thecreamalwaysrisestothetop
Peace off!
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