Smooth Seas
There is an African Proverb that states “Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors”. Rising above adversity can be hard, like navigating on a storm-tossed sea.
The navigation may be difficult, and at times terrifying, but if you master the storm, you will be a better sailor, and more adapt to handle the next storm that comes your way…and so too, it is such a blessing to be able to rise above adversity…
Sometimes things happen in our lives that literally change the way we live our lives going forward. What am I saying?
A lot of times something happens in our life and if we are not careful, we become stuck right there…
If we are unable to forgive the offence, then we become stuck. Being stuck, means that we will not and cannot make any progress going forward until that “thing” that got us stuck is fixed. Some of us are in a perpetual state of being “stuck”.
I’ll go even further to say that at whatever age you became “stuck”, that is the age you are for that given situation. For instance; if you were given green pea soup at the age of 10 years old, and you hated it, your emotions and reactions attached to green pea soup are still at the age of that of a 10-year-old.
You may say well no, I don’t like green pea soup, and so I just won’t eat it. Well, emotionally speaking your decision not to eat it is based on how it tasted when you were 10. So, you’re responding to something that happened when you were 10 although you may be 50-60 now.
When negative things happen in our lives, we have 3 choices, we can let it define us, destroy us or strengthen us.
Unfortunately, if we don’t have the right counsel over our issues, those same issues begin to “define” or “destroy” us. We become stuck right there and can’t progress.
Look, you can be the president of a Fortune Five Hundred company, a pillar of the neighborhood, singing in the choir every Sunday, BUT when it comes to getting past what your father said about you when you were 12; you can’t.
Every time you think about the name he called you, your emotions take you back to that time when you were 12. You just can’t forget it or forgive it.
So, you see my friend, I’m afraid to tell you this, but you are stuck at the age of 12 in certain situations that bring that experience to mind between you and your father.
Your gestational age may be one of maturity, but your age when it comes to most of your social situations is that of a 12-year-old.
Until you come to grips with what happened between you and your Dad at the age of 12, you will forever be 12 when it comes to coping with that issue.
So, what can we do? How can we move past a wrong, a hurt, an injustice that has been done to us? FORGIVENESS is the only real answer. It sets us free from the “stuck” mode. It loosens the hold that thing has on us and allows us to break free and to move on.
Will it be easy to get free, and then mature in that area? No, it will be hard work, and you will experience some setbacks, but once you have broken free, it will be well worth it! You will be “older” and wiser in the area.
