Uncomfortable

Greatness lies on the outside of your comfort zone. You have to be uncomfortable to do great things. You have to step into the unfamiliar. You have to do a new thing. You have to be open- minded. You have to be uncomfortable. I know it doesn’t feel good. You are all by yourself. It’s lonely. It’s different, but it’s good.

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”

- Neale Donald Walsch

Heal

I remember when ET brought a dying flower back to life. ET was one of my favorite movies growing up. It was my first introduction to sickness and healing. I remember Elliot and ET being quarantined. ET was turning white and all he wanted to do was go home. Interesting enough, ET had the ability to heal those around him, but not himself. We all have the ability to heal. Our bodies were created to heal themselves. We can heal emotional scars by releasing that anger, pain, and disappointment. We can heal relationships with apologies. Healing does take time. Healing does require change, and healing requires rest. Make it a point to heal before the new year.

Beyond Expectation

Fear plays a big part in our expectation. Past experience also plays a part in our expectation. If we have been disappointed, then we typically expect disappointment. If we have experienced failure, then we expect failure. If we have been hurt, then we expect pain. We have experienced the worst and now that is our expectation. God wants us to think beyond our past, beyond our hurt, beyond our failure, and beyond our disappointment. God wants us to cast our nets into the deep. He wants us to walk on water. He wants us to experience the miraculous. God’s ability and resources are limitless. God wants us to think BIG. God wants us to think beyond our reality, beyond our limits, beyond expectation.

Fortitude

I heard a preacher say that, “on the other side of your pain is success.” Most of us would choose a life free from pain and adversity. We would choose a life that doesn’t require any courage under fire. Interesting enough, it’s in the fire that we find out how much we can endure. It is in our weakness, we find our strength. It is in challenging times, we find our fortitude.

What Hurts?

Have you ever been to the doctor and they asked you, what hurts? You typically begin to list a series of symptoms. A good doctor will not just treat the symptoms, but try to find the root cause of your pain. If you're like me, you will Google your symptoms and try to self-diagnose. Typically, I'm pregnant, have cancer or dying according to WebMD. I had to stop using WebMD. Over the counter drugs usually alleviate the symptoms, but not the cause. It's a temporary fix. Most of us put band-aids on bruises. We treat surface injuries. We deal with only the things we can see. True healing goes beyond skin deep. Sometimes, we have to revisit that childhood pain. True healing requires us to acknowledge that we are broken and need to be healed. True healing requires us to answer the question, what hurts?