Turning Your Pain Into Purpose

Every human being on the face of the earth have been into a personal crisis of some kind, whether it’s difficult childhood, traumatic experience, painful relationships, betrayal, mounting financial problems, dismal failure and so on.

The shock or the pain we experience in those moments will haunt us if we don’t know how to manage it. Everything that happens to us has a purpose. If we acknowledge God in our lives, we know that we can never be a victim of circumstance. Just because something bad happened to us, we lose our sense of purpose. NO. In fact, for some, the pain they had breeds creativity and purpose.

A bookkeeper from DeKalb County school district faced a life-threatening situation when an armed 20-yr. old Michael Brandon Hill siege their school and promised to kill everyone. She talked the suspect to surrender after a brief standoff with the police. Calm and composed she talked to the troubled suspect and shared her own stories of heartbreak. Even Chris Voss, a former FBI hostage negotiator commended her performance considering she’s not a professional hostage negotiator. She was able to prevent what could have been a major disaster.

ANTOINETTE TUFF used her faith and personal scars to be relatable to that person that may need to hear it. She believes that everything she has been doing prepared her for that moment. This event hailed her to be one of CNN’s annual heroes. This also prompted her to launch a non-profit organization, called "Kids on the Move for Success” and wrote a book, "Prepared for a Purpose: The Inspiring True Story of How One Woman Saved an Atlanta School Under Siege."

What stories in your life can you share to inspire people or lift them up from the abyss of misery? How can you use your pain or trauma to impact the lives of others?

#Signposts #paintopurpose #darknessintolight

FACE THE FLINCH

To “flinch” is (1) to draw back or shrink, as from what is dangerous, difficult, or unpleasant; (2) to shrink under pain; wince. 

In her book “THE FLINCH” Julien Smith considered the flinch as our real opponent. She said, “The flinch is why the lazy actor never gets discovered—because she never really sweats to make it happen. It’s why the monolithic company gets wiped out by a lean startup—because the big company culture avoids the hard questions. It’s the reason you make the wrong decision, even though you may know what the right one is."

My perspective is that dealing with our own flinch will not be easy because of our fear to do the difficult tasks and to answer the hard questions in life. To test our limits, we need to discover which areas of our life do we flinch? We need to face it. 

Most of our valuable and unforgettable learnings are not from information we read from a book, nor from a degree or coached by our mentor but from the hard lessons we actually experienced in life. These learnings came from tears on our pillow, from unanswered calls, from doors that were shut behind you, from the cynical laughter of your so-called friends, from the failing marks, from the nagging voice of debt collectors, from unexpected diagnosis, from the humiliation in the meeting room, from conspirators who plotted against you, from rejected proposals and lost deals. We grow more from our own “scars” than from the principles we read and heard.

When we allow ourselves to go through these painful and inevitable experiences means we're willing to learn and change.

Kris Carr, went for a regular checkup with her doctor and came back with a diagnosis of a rare and incurable Stage IV cancer called epithelioid hemangioendothelioma, existing in her liver and lungs. It was February 14. “Happy Valentine’s Day. You have cancer,” Carr wrote in her journal that night.

Instead of giving up, she totally altered her nutritional lifestyle and advocate this through books and documentaries and launched her own website which impacted over 40k people. It has been more than a decade, Carr is now a New York Times best-selling author and wellness activist.

Let’s not escape life’s adversities or unpleasantries. The reason God did not remove those problems and obstacles in our path is for us to face the flinch and hurdle it no matter how painful it gets. It will build our character and solid faith in Him. Don’t avoid the flinch, face it!

#Signposts #resiliency #standfirm

MISFITS ARE FIT TO ACCOMPLISH BIG THINGS

There are a lot of times in the past I thought I wasn’t good enough to accomplish anything. I tried to fit in but bouts of self-doubt, fear of rejection and failure paralyzes me.  So, I wasted a lot of time and opportunities then, instead of working on myself to fix my situation.

When I started to look at my life and made it my motto to live everyday as if it is the last, I began to recognize what’s important in life and what I needed to do.  Gradually with God’s grace my view, my disposition and myself changed.  I may not be able to recover the lost opportunities, lost relationship & lost time, but with the remainder of my life I can still start fresh and achieve my life’s purpose.

We may be rejected, overlooked, ignored, forgotten, inadequate or unimportant in the eyes of others and tried so hard to fit in, don’t lose heart.  Remember that each of us have specific role that only us can play. God doesn’t use people who are self-sufficient.  He actually favors the weak, the oppressed, the outcasts and the needy.

A young man whose father is a lawyer and her mother a philanthropist, seems to have a good life ahead of him.  He earned his history degree and law degree with honors. After entering the US Marine Corps, he established his own law firm and eventually became the Special Counsel for Pres. Nixon.  With the power and influence he had, he became the president’s “hitman”.

Later he was brought to trial for conspiring to cover up the Watergate burglaries. As he was facing arrest, his friend gave him the book “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis.  His life was transformed and his convictions changed.  After consultation and prayer, he pleaded guilty to a different crime to which he believed he is responsible – obstruction of justice. He was later sentenced to prison and lost his legal license.

After seeing the plight of prisoners inside and the reforms that his father wanted ever since, he was convinced that he was being led to establish the world’s largest prison outreach organization - Prison Fellowship. It also branched out to another ministry, the Justice Fellowship that looks after criminal justice reforms. Today Prison Fellowship is active in all 50 states in the U.S., reaching more than 365k men and women prisoners and their programs are impacting more than 1,000 prisons. 

He also became an author of several books and part of his experiences was made into film.  His rights were reinstated after his release and he used his time speaking in conferences.  He won several awards and recognition.  He died due to complications in 2012 after he underwent surgery.  

CHARLES COLSON will always be remembered as someone who did not waste the hard lessons he learned in life to obey God’s leading and transform his unappealing condition to accomplish much for the Lord.

Early Risers Accomplish Much

Many will compete with our time as our day starts.  We need to take advantage of few hours of solitude when everyone is still asleep.

According to The Guardian’s article citing the genetics study conducted by Exeter University, the early birds gain more benefits than the night owls.  The former has greater levels of happiness and are at a lower risk of depression than the former.  As to productivity, Texas University study concluded that morning people had a grade point average (GPA) a point higher than the evening types.  Even University of Bristol researchers in its study of 341 snippets of DNA showed that early risers reduce the probability of having breast cancer.

Rising up early will provide mental clarity, creativity and of course more time for ourselves.  Meditating first thing in the morning is a good habit, it really shows that God is our priority even in our day. That’s why King David wrote, “O God, You are my God; early I will seek You; my soul thirsts for You.” We need guidance in our daily lives.

The value of this English proverb, “The early bird catcheth the worm” was integrated into the habits of these prominent people:

·      Apple CEO Tim Cook starts his day at 3:45am;

·      Pepsico CEO Indira Nooyi rises at 4am;

·      Attorney General of Washington State Bob Ferguson wakes up at 5am to cook breakfast for his family;

·      Jack Dorsey Twitter co-founder wakes up at 5 am

·      Project Runway consultant Tim Gunn starts his day with an espresso at 5:30am;

·      Simon Sinek wakes up at 6:15am everyday;

Paul Hudson said, “Life is meant to be lived… not slept through.” I’m equally guilty and I need more discipline in waking up early consistently, as I’m a night owl.  Small increments each day can gradually form the habit, we can do it!

Did you snooze your alarm this morning?

HOW DO YOU SEE THE WORLD?

Are you a nega-holic?

If we are around people that are cynical, critical, hostile, constantly complaining, jumping into conclusions, who always feel wronged, victimized, persecuted, constantly reminding how difficult things are… simply put a pessimist, beware because negativity is contagious.

Thinking negatively according to psychologists will harm us emotionally, it can destroy relationships or affect our health, our performance and even kills our creativity.

Marque Medical cited that doctors discovered that people with high levels of negativity are more likely to suffer from degenerative brain diseases, cardiovascular problems, digestive issues, and recover from sickness much slower than those with a positive mindset.

In her article at Forbes, Margie Warrell cited the study made by Psychologist Susan Segerstrom of law students who were optimistic 10 years after graduating, earned an average of $32,667 more than their glass-half-empty peers. The research concluded that optimism makes people happier, healthier and wealthier.

Don’t allow negativity to dominate our minds and eventually control our actions. When we overthink something, it will lead to negative thoughts. Cast all our burdens upon God. We are expected to rejoice in Him always and think only of whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable and anything else that is excellent or praiseworthy.

Beyond positive thinking, our faith must be anchored in God and in the trustworthiness of His promises.

#Signposts #happythoughts #remainpositive #truehope #God