We finished our series “What’s Your Big Hurry?” today @ The Gathering with installment number 8 entitled, “Someday We All Go Back to Zero.”
We talked about the three gifts God gives us on our life’s journey:
- The gift of hello, which guarantees that there are all kinds of new people coming into our lives; healthy people, exciting people, people we can connect to help get to where we need to be and also, in turn, help them. Always new people, always exciting new things, always more opportunity – that’s a gift from God called the gift of hello.
- The gift of good-bye. Sometimes relationships just simply end; relationships with people we work with, even a career, a marriage. Relationships that were once good turn toxic. And at those moments, God gives us the ability to walk away to give the gift of good-bye, and accept the gift of hello to new, healthy people who are coming into our lives for this leg of our journey.
- The third gift is a gift of a fresh start. There is a little known concept in the Old Testament called the year of jubilee. Every fiftieth year, no matter what had happened in the fifty years before, all original deeds to property went back to the original families and owners. This basically meant that no matter how badly you’d messed up, even to the point of losing the family land through bad business deals or investments, there would be at the fiftieth year the ability to start over. The fresh start is something that God promises each one of us everyday as we get up.
But the question is, how do you get unstuck when you feel like opportunity has dried up and people simply won’t respond to you? Here are the five ways to get unstuck.
- Get up. One of the first signs of depression is when you want to stay in bed too long. You want to lie around and do nothing. You have no energy; not because you are physically sick, but you emotionally and spiritually don’t have anything better to do.
- Suit up. Shave, shower, put some clothes, wear your best, and get out and show people you are open for business and you are serious.
- Show up. I truly believe that over 70% of life is showing up. We’ve been lied to when we’re told there is little opportunity because there are way too many people out there for the small piece of the pie. The truth is, there are very few people showing up to really seize the opportunities that are there every day. You need to be one of them.
- Do the next right thing. It’s like the old saying, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Maybe your goals, dreams, and aspirations, maybe just getting out of the rut you are in right now is going to take time and seems overwhelming because of the money and resources required. How in the world will you ever make it? You do it by doing the next right thing one day at a time. And you string those days into weeks, weeks into months, and those months into years and amazing things begin to happen.
- Trust God with the results. This is a sowing and reaping thing. God won’t do my part and I can’t do God’s part. I sow, and God makes it grow. If I get up and suit up, show up each day, accept God’s gift of hello, good-bye, an a fresh start by doing the next right thing, really amazing things begin to happen.
Remember, this could be the first day of a brand new beginning, a fresh start. Maybe you won’t do much today. Maybe for you, a lot is getting up, suiting up, and just getting out and being where other people are. Maybe you need to find an exciting, dynamic church and just start gathering there around other happy people; people who are energetic, people who believe that God is close and gracious, that He responds to our acts no matter how small, with love and faithfulness. You can get unstuck, you can begin again, and your future can be far greater than anything you’ve ever known.