THE AFTERLIFE II

As I’ve previously stated, we will not be discussing who is going to go to Heaven or who is going to go to Hell, that talk is between you and God. I shouldn’t be involved in that conversation. It’s too personal.

This talk here today is about The AfterLife or Life, After…

The Life After… the accident, incident, bankruptcy, conviction, death, divorce, D.U.I., eviction, job firing, jail time, loss, sickness, or whatever.

Many of us have likely heard the familiar expression that Life is Lifing right now.

I’ve come to remind you that there is always Life, after you get Life’d, hence our title The AfterLife.

The AfterLife, is our response to being Life’d by Life. It’s our comeback story!

Do you remember the last time you were Life’d? It was a challenge, right? Was it recently? How did you do? Did you get the better of it or did it get the better of you?

Let me answer that for you. You got the better of it. You know how I know. Because you are still here.

None of our challenges have ever gotten the best of us. They have never prevailed over us. Never! Not one!

Not the divorce, not the death of a loved one, not the financial challenges, not the eviction from housing, not the health issues, not the economy, not even a generational worldwide deadly plague stopped us.

Please understand me here, this was not because we were so great, but it was because we have been kept by Gods great love for us.

Oftentimes the Bible refers to God as a Keeper. And that He is!

In the book of John 17, It says that the Keeper will protect us from seen and unseen dangers, from troubles we anticipate and from hidden traps.

Truth is, we have been overcoming challenges our whole life.

During our entire childhood we overcame obstacles and challenges. We learned to walk, we learned to talk, we learned to read and write, we learned to count, we learned to interact with others.

We have a lot of experience overcoming challenges. No matter what came up, we never gave up.

What has been the difference between childhood to adulthood?

Aside from the student loan, car note, economy, housing payments, trying to get a job, family, and job responsibilities, and the like.

The biggest difference has been our mindset. When we were kids, nothing stayed with us long. We kept everything moving.

One of our biggest problems as adults is that we Overthink Everything!

We tend to view every challenge as Torture, not as Teaching.

When we fell while learning to ride a bike, we appreciated learning what it took to learn to stay on the bike. That was the goal, to learn to ride at all costs. The challenge of holding and guiding the handlebars while peddling was a teaching, not torture.

We didn’t overthink it, we adjusted from what we learned in our falls and kept it moving.

“When you face difficult times, know that challenges are not sent to destroy you. They are sent to promote, increase and strengthen you…”  – Anonymous

A life without challenges might sound good to us, but it will not produce the results we want. It wont make us stronger,  on the contrary it will make us weaker. The adversity in life is not only inevitable, but it is also necessary. Necessary to help us become our best self.

Think of yourself like one of the beautiful tall buildings that makes up the cityscape of a major city. The profile of the city’s skyline is etched with lots of well designed “skyscrapers”.

Skyscrapers do what Architects call a dance of forces.

The buildings were never designed to be rigid and stiff, kind of like our bodies. Those tall buildings were designed to sway in the wind. They were made to respond dynamically to external forces. Bounce Back!

The Chief Engineer (God) orchestrated a delicate dance between gravity, wind, and the buildings makeup to ensure optimal stability.

Simply put, we were meant to sway when challenges come not break. As we lean into the challenge we will be just fine.

Regardless of our education, fame, fortune, influence, or lack thereof, life will be filled with difficulties.

But learning to deal with them in a healthy productive way will yield us wonderful personal growth and beautiful peace of mind.

Here are 5 Foundational Principles to help us Sway in the winds of Life.

#1 Stop Overthinking Everything. Just K.I.S.S. Keep it Stupidly Simple. Easy Peasy. Tell yourself Just STOP IT! Don’t even go there.

#2 Remain in the Present moment. Stay in the NOW Don’t get into what if or what might be. Look at where you are Right Now! Today

“Don’t focus on tomorrow” Jesus told the people following him.

#3 Don’t allow yourself to Think Negatively. What if the best outcome happens and not the worst. Have hopeful thoughts, not doomsday.

“Think on the good” is what they told the people in Phillipi.

#4 Don’t Neglect Self Care. When we face challenges, we tend to stop personal care. You still need to eat well, rest well, and have other outlets. This will end and you’ll need to be in position to move forward.

#5 Look for Learnings. How can I use what I’ve learned about myself in this circumstance? What are some other purposes this learning can serve? How can I help someone else who will, or is going through this?

Being Life’d can feel overwhelming if we let it. The choice is ours.

We can choose to acknowledge the pain and remind ourselves there is an AfterLife. While be complementary of our growth, as well as Rejoicing in our improvements.

As we embrace and face these moments, those negative, fearful, and devastating effects of the experience will decrease, and we will learn to focus more on the Keeper, rather than the occurrence.

The occurrences will be varied, but the Keeper will be forever constant.

Thank you Keeper, for keeping us!

This is a Thompson Truth