I once thought I was not a strong person. My self-esteem was almost non- existent, my self-confidence was in hiding, and I suppose my mindset was one of ‘I’ll coast through life and see what happens. After all, I’ll take what comes and I probably deserve what comes.’
Oh my. What a lousy way to approach life. Trouble comes, so do nothing, say nothing, assume you deserve it and that’s that.
No way. I say NO WAY.
I’ve had a few dark days in my years of living. And with the living I’ve done thus far, I can look behind me and see those dark days.
And look what I learned and look how I came out.
You don’t know the inner strength you possess until you really must dig down and use it. Oh, my friend. You have strength inside of you. I hope you believe that. What you must do now is let that strength, that intestinal fortitude rise to the surface and show us that you may be down, but you’re not out.
That bears repeating.
“You may be down, but you’re not out.”
Many of us have experienced divorce, or bankruptcy, job loss, loss of a loved one, horrible surgeries, and the list goes on.
The great news is this ... some of us have found the strength to rise from the ash-heap and make a new start. We’ve found the strength from somewhere within us and pulled ourselves up by the bootstrap. We’ve determined that this too shall pass, and this situation is not going to be the end of us.
It is not the end.
It is not even the beginning of the end.
It, however, could be the beginning of a new beginning. That’s not double- speak. That is what it is – a new beginning. Every beginning has a starting point. Where is yours?
A personal story:
When I went through toe amputation surgery on my left foot three years
ago, I had dark days. I wondered, questioned, and worried over my ability
or inability to ever walk at a normal pace. And I thought pain in walking
was going to become the norm for me for the rest of my life.
Look at me today. I can walk. I do the treadmill at the gym. I work a 40- hour week. This past summer I discovered I can ride a bicycle again, and the weekly improvements keep on coming.
My first steps after surgery were not a pretty sight. I was in pain with every step. When I came home from the hospital, I was fearful of having to climb eight steps up and then eight steps down into our condo.
I’m way past all that.
Along the way, with Carolyn's help, I found my inner strength, my intestinal fortitude to persevere, to be persistent and to keep doing what I knew needed doing, for I was not going to let a little thing like missing five toes stop me from living a good and full life.
They were dark days. And guess what. They made me prove just how strong I already was.
I found the strength within. How about that.
Now, I’ve used a lot of “I” words to tell my story, and I trust you will forgive me for that. The point is this ... we all have that measure of inner strength. Sometimes, we never see it until the hard places come, the seemingly unsurmountable experiences in life. And when those times do come, we have a choice.
Will we wallow in our self-pity and doomsday mindset? Or will we rise, take up our bed and walk.
Just to be clear, I am a man of faith. I have no doubt that the God of my understanding was by my side through all that I have experienced in life.
And I do know that He will not do for us what we can do for ourselves.
What can you do for yourself? Sometimes we can only do small acts, and those small, somewhat insignificant acts lead to more small acts, and muscles that start firing, and neurons and nerve endings that fire, and mindsets that start changing from a can’t do to a CAN DO!
Dark days are no fun, granted. And look what they teach us.
P Michael Biggs
Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration
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