"As he had done so many times before, [Abraham] Lincoln withstood the storm of defeat by replacing anguish over an unchangeable past with hope in an uncharted future." - Doris Kearns Goodwin in Team of Rivals
A couple of years ago, my wife and I stumbled across a picture that surprised us. A new Facebook friend named Michelle Ford had a picture of a tattoo with the words: “Scars Show That You Survived.”
I had shared these very words with Caleb, our son.
One day before school when he was in 5th grade, Caleb buttoned up his shirt all the way to the top because he was embarrassed by the scar left as a result of the open heart surgery he had as an infant. I was trying to remind him how meaningful scars can become since they remind us of the miraculous moments in our lives when God protected us from even worse circumstances.
I started interacting with Michelle and discovered she was at a retreat where I spoke and had shared that story. Little did I know how much that story meant to her. Michelle shared a glimpse of her story when she wrote:
“Just over five years ago I was hit with the news that I had a metastatic glomus jugular tumor. Don’t worry, I had no idea what that meant either. At just sixteen years old, on April 20, 2006, I went in to St. Vincent Hospital in LA to have a large benign blood-filled brain tumor removed behind my right ear….
As of April 20, 2011, I have undergone sixteen surgeries. I have become quite the pro when dealing with pain and needles. With a cancer in which no one else in the world has, we celebrate five years of fighting! Through all the ups, downs, pains, surgeries, depression, anger, loneliness, bitterness, and frustration, I would not change one thing about the last six years of my life. It was so hard letting go of the girl I was before the diagnosis, but who I am today is so much more than I ever could have been without this experience. God has used me in unimaginable ways, and will continue to do so until His work in me is done.”
To read the rest of Michelle’s story, go here.
Too often we give up too soon!
President Theodore Roosevelt once said: “Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength.”
We can experience a life beyond our wildest imagination when we maximize who we were created to be which requires tenacity.
Applying the principles Jesus shared in describing the four types of soils in Matthew 13 and Luke 8, we can become fruitful (i.e., creative, generative, and productive). Jesus’ parable points out that we struggle to become who we were created to be when we have a hardened heart, a shallow faith, or find ourselves trapped among the thorns. If we can avoid these pitfalls, we will be fruitful.
Which soil best describes you?
Soils
To avoid these common struggles, we can discover our God-given destiny by developing 4 skills. Becoming who we were created to be means we need to become receptive, tenacious, intentional, and proactive.
God works in our lives and even helps us trust Him, but there are things we must do to really grow. We have to work hard to overcome silence, trials, temptations, and rebellion. We need to choose to follow Him which is not always easy.
The skills are derived from Jesus' parable. To move from a hardened heart to a vulnerable one, we need to overcome the silence and become receptive to God's voice. To move from a shallow faith to a deep faith, we can overcome trials by becoming tenacious. To move from a thorny situation and instead have clarity, we can overcome temptations by becoming intentional. To avoid living a life of desolation, a life lacking fruitfulness, we overcome rebellion by becoming proactive.
This chart shows us a way to apply the parable of the soils to our lives:
SOILS ------- ALTERNATIVE ----- SKILLS
Hardened ----- Vulnerable ------ Receptive (Overcoming Silence)
Shallow --------- Deep ----------- Tenacious (Overcoming Trials)
Thorny -----------Clear ----------- Intentional (Overcoming Temptations)
Desolate --------- Fruitful ------- Proactive (Overcoming Rebellion)
In this snippet, we will look at how becoming tenacious can help you make progress in your spiritual journey.
The following snippets enable you to dive deeper into this process. The four essential skills to develop in order to become who you were created to be include:
A Fruitful Life (An Overview): Becoming Who You Were Created to Be (free)
Becoming Receptive ($.99) - What is God calling you to do?
Becoming Tenacious ($.99) - What trials have you faced?
Becoming Intentional ($.99) - What temptations distract you?
Becoming Proactive ($.99) - What sacrifices do you need to make?