Rise Up!

Gen 13:17 Rise up and walk through the land, in the length of it and in the breadth of it, for I will give it to you.

Helen Keller wrote, "If we trust, if we relinquish our will and yield to the Divine will, then we find that we are afloat on a buoyant sea of peace and under us are the everlasting arms."

Someone once said: “In the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber. So long as it receives a message of beauty, hope, cheer, and courage-so long are you young. When the wires are all down and your heart is covered with the snow of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and only then, are you grown old.”

In the Garden of Eden, things were perfect. We did not have to deal with the “knowledge of good and evil.” We just existed, loved, and worked. But now, things are different. Literally everything we will ever do, touch, be involved in, try, know, or experience will be affected by the negative reality of a fallen, imperfect universe.

God did not cause the fall of the earth. But, he put his arms around the problem and fixed it. A CEO might not have caused a bad market, but a good one will take ownership of the poor results of the company and move to fix it. He will not sit there and just blame the market. He will fix the problem.

A parent with a child who is not performing will not just blame the teacher or the school. He or she will care about the problem and take ownership of it and fix it.

And, with problems where one is at fault, the person of integrity owns the fault, confesses it, and works to make it better. He does not shift the blame trying to preserve some “good self” to himself or others. He is not like the person who tries to always make himself look good, and as a result does not solve problems.

The person of integrity confronts problems well, becoming a force for redemption instead of destruction.

This means that when they confront others that they do it actively, but they also do it fruitfully. They do it like God does, not to destroy a person, but to redeem him or her. They do it like God does, with a combination of grace and truth.

Some people confront with truth only, and as a result destroy the person. They are harsh, mean, shaming, angry or abusive. This does not produce a good result. Others, confront with a lot of grace, but do not deliver all of the truth. They go too soft on how bad the problem really is. God comes forth in his character with both: total love, and total truth that deals with the problem.

This means that he or she does not let problems or failures continue on by holding grudges, unforgiveness, and labeling people after there has been a problem and that problem has been dealt with. The person of integrity grieves the issue (deals with his or her feelings), forgives, puts the person back in a “debt free” standing, and moves on. They ‘get over it’.

In managing people, being married, having friends, or parenting, this is one of the most important things that we can do. Everyone will fail us. When we have dealt with it, we have to let it go for things to get good again and progress past the problem. We cannot keep someone in the “dog house.” We have to let go of bitterness for the person to thrive past failure and for our relationship as well.

The best way to deal with a negative reality is to never have it in the first place.

In the end, there are only two ways to live life. We can face the problems and negative realities that come into our lives and exist in the world around us, and thrive. Or, we can choose to not face them and have them destroy us. The first is more difficult in the beginning and leads to life, profits, fruitfulness, love and other good things. The second is easier in the beginning, but it leads to horrible things and ultimately destruction in the end. There are two ways….easy first, hard later, or hard first, easy later. God’s way is face the problems now, and you will thrive in the end.

But, to do that requires certain character abilities. As we work on those through spiritual growth, we can resolve the negative realities in the strength and the way of the One who did it best.

This means that people of integrity avoid a lot of problems by their strength of character in saying “no” to things that are not good for them. They do not go forward into things that do not feel right, don’t smell right, are with “not so good people,” are hair-brained, or whatever. If something is wrong with it, they just say “no.” They can walk away.

I believe that a `full life` starts at the level of trust we put in God. The more we trust, the more fulfillment we have.