11.17.24 ~ How do we navigate life’s challenges?
Good morning!
Sabbath morning zoom call: 2 Kings 4, Two Miracles: From Empty & Barren to Fruitful. The sooner you live under authority, the faster you'll have the opportunity to lead in authority.
In yesterday’s study, we talked about Abraham and Sarah coming with their days and the process that they went through to become the rock and the quarry of our faith (Isaiah 51:1–4; Galatians 3:29).
One practical question for all of us is how do we navigate through life’s challenges? How do we deal with great difficulty, particularly during your crisis? Especially when, one, you don’t know if it’ll end or when it will end. Or, secondly, what will life be like after it ever ends?
I want to share with you a story about admiral Jim Stockdale. Stockdale was the highest ranking US military officer in the Hanoi Hilton prisoner of war camp. The setting is during the Vietnam war. It is told of his POW imprisonment that Stockdale was tortured over 20 times during his eight years.
Stockdale lived out the war without any prison rights, With no release date, and with no certainty of survival. He didn’t know if he would ever see his family again. He remained a steadfast leader. Even while in prison with the other inmates, he did everything he could to create conditions that would increase the number of prisoners who would survive unbroken. This, while fighting the internal war against his captors, who were attempting to use the prisoners, particularly the American prisoners for propaganda.
At one point he beat himself with a stool and cut himself with a razor, deliberately disfiguring himself, so he could not be used as an example of a well-treated prisoner. Using a hidden code he communicated intelligence information through letters with his wife. He knew full well if he was discovered, it would mean more torture, and perhaps even death.
He instituted an elaborate internal communication system with the other prisoners, and this was designed to reduce their sense of isolation, something the enemy tried to create. After his release, Stockdale became the first three star officer in history to wear both the aviator wings and the congressional medal of honor.
Which begs me to ask the question how on earth did he possibly deal with all this turmoil? Particularly when he did not know the end of the story? Whether he would even survive to see an end of the story that didn’t end with him dying? His response,'I never lost faith“ in the end of the story! I never doubted it; not only that I would get out, and that I would prevail. In the end I decided I would turn my experience being in prison into the defining event of my life. In retrospect, he said, 'I would not trade it'.
He was asked, 'Who didn’t make it out'? 'Oh that’s easy to answer...the optimist. Huh? Yes, the optimist. They were the ones who said we’re going to be out by Christmas and then Christmas would come and Christmas would go then they’d say we’re going to be out by Easter. And Easter would come, and Easter would go then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again...sound familiar to any of your imprisonments in life? They died of a broken heart.
This is a very important lesson for us today. We, speaking of me, myself and I, must never confuse faith that you prevail in the end, which you can never afford to lose, with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality; whatever they might be. To do so is denial, which will produce defeat. And that reality will keep us from overcoming obstacles and achieving any form of progress.
So what do we do? First, never lose faith in the happy ending of the story, we will prevail if we live the overcomer mindset. We’ve been through crises like this throughout the 'coming with our days'...this too shall pass. If you live the story, you will not lose faith in the end of the story.
Number two, address the brutal facts of your new normal. Control what you can control and make the most of it.
Number three, decide to turn the experience into the most positive defining event in your life and you will emerge from the ashes a better, stronger, and more capable leader, parent, friend, and citizen.
Profoundly, that’s what we can do! Ironically, that is what we and those around us expect.
This morning, I purposefully left off Scriptures. Why? I wanted you to think through Scriptures of individuals who went through crises and how they applied these simply profound truths. The big question for each of us on this 1st day of the week is, 'How do you plan to make your current crisis the greatest positive defining experience of your life?
Shalom
In yesterday’s study, we talked about Abraham and Sarah coming with their days and the process that they went through to become the rock and the quarry of our faith (Isaiah 51:1–4; Galatians 3:29).
One practical question for all of us is how do we navigate through life’s challenges? How do we deal with great difficulty, particularly during your crisis? Especially when, one, you don’t know if it’ll end or when it will end. Or, secondly, what will life be like after it ever ends?
I want to share with you a story about admiral Jim Stockdale. Stockdale was the highest ranking US military officer in the Hanoi Hilton prisoner of war camp. The setting is during the Vietnam war. It is told of his POW imprisonment that Stockdale was tortured over 20 times during his eight years.
Stockdale lived out the war without any prison rights, With no release date, and with no certainty of survival. He didn’t know if he would ever see his family again. He remained a steadfast leader. Even while in prison with the other inmates, he did everything he could to create conditions that would increase the number of prisoners who would survive unbroken. This, while fighting the internal war against his captors, who were attempting to use the prisoners, particularly the American prisoners for propaganda.
At one point he beat himself with a stool and cut himself with a razor, deliberately disfiguring himself, so he could not be used as an example of a well-treated prisoner. Using a hidden code he communicated intelligence information through letters with his wife. He knew full well if he was discovered, it would mean more torture, and perhaps even death.
He instituted an elaborate internal communication system with the other prisoners, and this was designed to reduce their sense of isolation, something the enemy tried to create. After his release, Stockdale became the first three star officer in history to wear both the aviator wings and the congressional medal of honor.
Which begs me to ask the question how on earth did he possibly deal with all this turmoil? Particularly when he did not know the end of the story? Whether he would even survive to see an end of the story that didn’t end with him dying? His response,'I never lost faith“ in the end of the story! I never doubted it; not only that I would get out, and that I would prevail. In the end I decided I would turn my experience being in prison into the defining event of my life. In retrospect, he said, 'I would not trade it'.
He was asked, 'Who didn’t make it out'? 'Oh that’s easy to answer...the optimist. Huh? Yes, the optimist. They were the ones who said we’re going to be out by Christmas and then Christmas would come and Christmas would go then they’d say we’re going to be out by Easter. And Easter would come, and Easter would go then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again...sound familiar to any of your imprisonments in life? They died of a broken heart.
This is a very important lesson for us today. We, speaking of me, myself and I, must never confuse faith that you prevail in the end, which you can never afford to lose, with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality; whatever they might be. To do so is denial, which will produce defeat. And that reality will keep us from overcoming obstacles and achieving any form of progress.
So what do we do? First, never lose faith in the happy ending of the story, we will prevail if we live the overcomer mindset. We’ve been through crises like this throughout the 'coming with our days'...this too shall pass. If you live the story, you will not lose faith in the end of the story.
Number two, address the brutal facts of your new normal. Control what you can control and make the most of it.
Number three, decide to turn the experience into the most positive defining event in your life and you will emerge from the ashes a better, stronger, and more capable leader, parent, friend, and citizen.
Profoundly, that’s what we can do! Ironically, that is what we and those around us expect.
This morning, I purposefully left off Scriptures. Why? I wanted you to think through Scriptures of individuals who went through crises and how they applied these simply profound truths. The big question for each of us on this 1st day of the week is, 'How do you plan to make your current crisis the greatest positive defining experience of your life?
Shalom
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