Not always an easy action. There are times when you feel so beaten down that you ask yourself if it is really worth it to get back up. This is especially true when you’ve really tried and done everything you can think of to make (fill in the blank) a success and absolutely nothing seems to work… ‘why bother’ is an emotion that will express itself. But… what’s the alternative? Wallowing will allure us, but it has a limited appeal. Please don’t misunderstand – we all have pity parties and I’m not convinced that this is necessarily always ‘bad’. It’s really more a matter of how long we stay in this ‘condition’.
So now, after agonizing, you look around at where you are and ask – now what? All the questions of why, what could or should have been done, etc. spring to mind. However, the first step is getting back up. Not always a simple action but it has to occur for movement to happen. Once I’ve gotten though the majority of feeling sorry for myself, my picture to encourage me is the scripture that says, “… after having done all to stand, stand…” (Ephesians 6:10-18). Sometimes the first thing we need do is to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off… and stand. And though that’s easily said, if you feel that you are covered in multiple layers of debris… not simple.
The question really is – do you know your method on how to once again stand? You will get back up again, but how you go about doing this is critically important to your continued success. What I or others do isn’t as important is what you do. Is your method effective for you? If you are swaying as you stand, I would suggest that perhaps you do need a different approach. Initially we all seem to need some form of support until our legs are stronger – what’s yours?
We all discover strength and comfort in these times. Sometimes it’s other people as well but I would recommend that you turn to the Lord first. He will wrap His arms around you until you feel strong enough to look at what happened and He will help you resolve your ‘what happened’. One of the issues is to not repeat the behavior/thinking that placed you in the situation in the first place – even if you do feel you did everything to fulfill the responsibility/create success. The point is you can learn from what happened, you can move forward, you can … but first, you need to get back up.
