I recently spoke with a friend who has run an ultra ultra marathon - 100 miles in less than 24 hours. He explained that when he runs he has reached points where he isn't feeling strong anymore, he's tired, his muscles burn, his body and his thoughts simultaneously scream it's time to stop. And he could stop and feel good about the pace run and distance covered as he has already pushed himself hard today. But he hasn't reached his goal yet. So he pushes on, he refuses to let his mind and body dictate when he is going to stop.
And then something amazing happens as he forces his spiritual will against his natural self. His "reserve" kicks in and he moves forward while his pain subsides - he pushes on strong again and reaches his destination. He said,
"I have come to know that there is a reserve within us. Our bodies hold a power that we won't tap into until we are taxed to our first or second limit and hear it is too hard to proceed. Yet, when we push through and commit to moving forward we find an oft hidden and untapped power and we succeed."
We all have strengths. We all have problems. We all bring some issue(s) from our past that sleeps until an event provides a chance to wake up. Unbelievable performance or sleeping tyrants surprise us from time to time. But it's really not the problems that are our problems. It's believing in and then finding the strength within to keep moving forward.
Instead of giving more effort to learn and serve others sometimes we want to quit or we get discouraged. The winds of opposition invite us to sit. The closer we get to finishing something good, the more they echo around us and sometimes, sometimes we listen; instead of lifting our heads up and persisting through the storm to the other side of calm faster.
When we are looking for an answer, through the Grace of a Kind Father in Heaven it comes in spite of our perceived shortcomings. And sometimes answers wait until we get our work done first, or just stop and listen.
There is more to us than we know: Indominable Spirit. Resiliant Soul. Powerful Light Within. Children of a Divine Parents. Heirs to a throne. You. And me.
The strength to succeed is within us all. How deep is our reserve? How far will we be pushed sometimes? Even Moses learned, after his arms dropped and his people started to lose the war and die, that he needed help holding up his staff so the Israelites could win against their foes.
My wife put on a DVD where Oprah Winfrey was speaking sitting on a plush couch, beautifully dressed in a palatial home. She had interviewed three women in prison who had killed their young children. As she left the interview, they declared, you probably hate us dont you. Oprah said something like, I don't hate them for what they did. They had problems. I had problems (equal to their abuses). They chose to deal with their problems their way. I choose to deal with my problems different than they did. May we all see the other choice, the alternative, the higher road that becons us, if we will raise our heads and look up instead of down when things get challenging and flat out difficult to go on!
Indeed. "The problem" isn't an excuse or in most cases a reason to become less than the Spirit prompts us to be through our conscience and feelings and others. We were born to succeed. Each person on earth is given a special set of weaknesses that we might learn to find our strength within, paradoxically by relying on God's power. We are His offspring. A well of Power resides within us if we choose not only to endure long enough, but seek to learn and improve then we really tap into it who we are, who we are called to be.
How often has a temptation haunted you, patiently, diligently stalked you, day in and day out? It will not persist forever with the same force and influence if we resist and turn our focus to getting outisde of ourselves, learning, serving and doing our work. Work cures a myriad of ills and woes. Service takes care of the rest.
The Strength Within is in you. It's real. It will grow with you. It's available on demand. It's yours to use as you want, need and have to.
May we find the strength to look up instead of down and then rise once more and finish the work that is ours to do. That we use our problems to empathize and strengthen others who may need your strength within.
Bryan
i2i2blog@gmail.com
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