letters to a modern-day Job

When it seems you are too far away from accomplishing anything worthy, I found one of the best motivational speeches is from Denzel Washington’s Stick with God, here’s part of it:

Without commitment you’ll never start, but more importantly without consistency, you’ll never finish.

True desire in the heart for anything good Is God’s proof to you sent beforehand to indicate that it’s yours already. That itch that you have to be whatever it is you want to be – that itch, that desire for good is God’s proof to you to indicate that it’s yours.

You already have it.

Claim it.

Understand this also.

Dreams without goals – yearly goals, life goals, daily goals, monthly goals, hourly goals, minute by minute goals, dreams without goals are just dreams and they ultimately fuel disappointment.

Goals on the road to achievement cannot be achieved without discipline and consistency.

Between goals and achievement our discipline and consistency I pray that you all put your shoes way under the bed at night so that you got to get on your knees in the morning.

Thank God for grace and mercy and understanding we all fall short of the glory.

We all got plenty just if you just start thinking of all the things you got to say thank you for. You have all been given these gifts and we all have that unique gift to go out and touch people to affect people.

Understand that gift. Protect that gift. Appreciate that gift. Utilize that gift. Don’t abuse that gift, treasure it.

You’ll never see a U-Haul behind a hearse. I’ll say it again. You’ll never see a U-Haul behind a hearse.
I’ve been blessed to make hundreds of millions of dollars in my life.
I can’t take it with me and neither can you so it’s not how much you have, it’s what you do with what you have.
We all have different gifts – some money, some love, some patience, some the ability to touch people.
But we all have it. Use it. Share it. That’s what counts.

I found that nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks.

Nelson Mandela said there is no passion to be found playing small and settling for a life that’s less than the one you’re capable of living.
I’m sure people have told you to make sure you have something to fall back on.
But I never understood that concept… having something to fall back on.
If I’m going to fall, I don’t want to fall back on anything except my faith. I want to fall forward.

This is what I mean.

Reggie Jackson struck out 26 hundred times in his career the most in the history of baseball, but you don’t hear about the strikeouts people remember the home runs.

Fall forward.

Thomas Edison conducted 1,000 failed experiments. Did you know that I didn’t know that because the 1,000 and first was the light bulb?

Fall forward.

Every failed experiment is one step closer to success.
You’ve got to take risks and I’m sure you’ve probably heard that before, but I want to talk to you about why that’s so important

First.

You will fail at some point in your life. Accept you will embarrass yourself.
You will suck at something. There’s no doubt about it
Embrace it because it’s inevitable.

And I should know
But here’s the thing:
I didn’t quit.
I didn’t fall back.
I Prayed.
I prayed and I prayed.
But I continued to fail and fail and fail.
But it didn’t matter because you know what there’s an old saying:
You hang around the barbershop long enough sooner or later you’re gonna get a haircut.
So you will catch a break and I did catch a break.

Here’s my second point about failure:

if you don’t fail you’re not even trying.
I’ll say it again if you don’t fail you’re not even trying.
My wife told me this great expression to get something you never had you have to do something you never did.

Les Brown’s a motivational speaker. He made an analogy about this.

He says to imagine you’re on your deathbed and standing around your deathbed are the ghosts representing your unfulfilled potential, the ghosts of the ideas you never acted on, the ghosts of the talents you didn’t use and they’re standing around your
bed angry, disappointed and upset. They say, “We came to you because you could have brought us to life and now we have to go to the grave together.”

So I ask you today – how many ghosts are going to be around your bed when your time comes?
So you got to get out there.
You got to give it everything you got whether it’s your time
Your talent, your prayers, your treasures.
What are you going to do with what you have?
Because the chances you take, the people you meet, the people you love, the faith that you have – that’s what’s going to define you.

Never be discouraged.
Never hold back.
Give everything you’ve got.
And when you fall throughout life remember this:

Fall forward.

Number one.

Put God first.
Put God first in everything you do.
Everything that you think you see in me, everything that I’ve accomplished, everything that you think I have, and I have a few things, everything that I have is by the grace of God.
Understand that it’s a gift.
I’ve been protected. I’ve been directed. I’ve been corrected.
I’ve kept God in my life and has kept me humble.
I didn’t always stick with him, but he always stuck with me.
So stick with him in everything you do.
If you think you want to do what you think I’ve done then do what I’ve done
and stick with God.

Number two.
Fail big.
You only live once.
So do what you feel passionate about. Take chances. Don’t be afraid to.
Think outside the box. Don’t be afraid to fail big to dream big.
You have to work at it every day. You have to plan.
Every day you’ve heard the saying we don’t plan to fail, we fail to plan.
Hard work works.
Working really hard is what successful people do.
Don’t confuse movement with progress.
And anything you want you can have so claim it.
Work hard to get it.
When you get it, reach back, pull someone else up.
Each one.
Teach one.
Don’t just aspire to make a living.
Aspire to make a difference.

I love this speech so much.

This is one of the best I’ve heard to motivate us to be more than, to do bigger, more meaningful things, that we are now.

Whatever good dreams you have, utilize whatever you have and commit to achieving it with tangible goals. Do it with humility and gratefulness before God.

And don’t be afraid to fail.

That is your part.

BUT, this speech seems a little incomplete for people who are “in the Abyss.”

By “Abyss” I mean having very big disadvantages leading to continual failures and are usually paralyzed by failures or a lifetime of rejection. They could be people with problems or illnesses that not only debilitate but society can’t or doesn’t want to recognize. Those who legitimately tried again and again and experienced great futility.

The slaves on Democrat plantations. The prisoners in Auschwitz. The Job of the Bible.

Those are extreme cases, but today we have people who are closer to those examples than most.

The homeless, the drug-addicted, the chronically diseased.

How could any of them dare to dream, have the risk appetite or have enough resources to achieve something?

Such speeches would have motivated me 10 years before my Abyss, when I was healthier, more attractive and had some opportunities. But after being stricken with sickness and seeing how cold the world can be, somehow, such messages seemed incomplete. I felt such messages were for regular folks who needed a kick in the butt, and not for the losers that the world had forgotten. For the world had forgotten you for reasons that persisted long before you heard such a message, those reasons are likely still around.

How not to be afraid to fail when continual failures landed you to this point in the first place, and one more failure might make you lose one too many times?

What if too many of your resources have dried up and motivation is not enough to “get us there”?

Unlike other people, your struggles are too large. Your dreams are too far away, or what you have already stopped dreaming because life turned out to be a nightmare.

A person trying to cross a small river might need to paddle his raft harder or get bigger paddles. A person trying to cross the ocean requires something totally different, a submarine to carry him over.

So for you who have too big disadvantages or a lifetime in an ocean of rejection, it’s not enough, it’s incomplete. Let me complete what Denzel had to say. Or rather, unpack the part about God.

You must use whatever small resources left and use it to work on something worthy.

BUT, you must also know God’s part and actively invite Him to work alongside you – every step of the way. You cannot do it on your own. The small boost that might come from self-confidence or “positivity” is enough for regular folks but we both know it’s not enough for you.

You need real help. You don’t just need help in the game, you need a Game-Changer.

I happen to know one available for all those in Christ.

God is a willing partner and helper.

Did you forget? I say this respectfully.

Jesus came to serve.

God does two things.

1) He gives you the right dreams so that you don’t play the wrong games and thus win the wrong prizes.
2) He opens doors. He lengthens your reach. He multiplies the result. He takes your human limited effort and multiplies it more than we can imagine.

This is God’s part.

You must claim God’s part with as much rigor as you claim your part.

You must claim Jesus, for Jesus is the reason God is fully willing to help you.

You must.

Jesus came not to punish you for every mistake, or give you some gifts and then leave you alone, or to be a teacher that you can do things better by your own strength.

Jesus came to save and Jesus came to serve.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:10)

just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Matthew 20:28)

Jesus loves to be claimed.

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Col 3:17)

When I was younger, I was taught to revere and keep Jesus to a “holy distance”. Although I was taught that I was forgiven, yet I was frightened to get too close to God.

Today, I know Jesus differently.

Jesus came to save and serve.

This is God’s heart.

USE HIM.

You show the greatest respect to a Stradivarius when you play it with the appropriate bow creating beautiful music, and not to use it as a hammer to hit nails down.

You show the greatest respect to a formula one race car by using it to win the Grand Prix, and not to keep it in the garage for Instagram pictures.

You show Jesus the greatest respect when you interact with Jesus the way He wanted you to interact with Him and not from our own bias or teaching from a religious institution.

Regular folks have the luxury of simply doing their part with self-confidence and that alone can bring some success. But folks like you and I, that have big disadvantages and a lifetime of regret and heartbreak paralysis need something different:

We need to fully commit to our part, our effort; and not with “self-confidence” but with “God-confidence” – we fully commit and claim God’s promises through Christ.

Now, claim all of these in prayer and know that all of these promises are in effect through and in Christ.

I know you feel you have fallen so far and it will take too long to make a significant difference in your life.

That’s why when you’ve finally put your hand to the till and start to plow you will be tempted to give up. Memories of your failures will paralyze you. Old bad habits formed to numb the pain will suck you back into its gravity. Thoughts that this big project initiative will fail will discourage you.

That’s why as you do every little small thing, you must do it in Christ.

As you follow Denzel’s exhortation to use whatever you have to commit to achieving bigger things with gratefulness, you must claim every promise God has given in Christ, and that makes God take your little human effort and make it super-abundant.

Every evening listen to sermons about the power of God’s grace.
As you start doing the little things, listen to music that points to Jesus.
When you get a chance to meet with a brother or sister-in-Christ, pray for each other for God’s wisdom, direction, and supernatural provision.

His promises, His confidence, His provision allows us to dream again, to risk again, achieve again, and to respond in love to those who hurt us and are unrepentant doing so.

What will be the end result of all these efforts between you and God?

Lodged deeply between the conquering of your adversities, the stretching of your faith and fears, learning about the heart of God and being transformed to Christ’s likeness is the inevitable transformation into your office into a King and Priest that God has determined for His end-time church.

The Priest reconciles God’s with the people through blessing and the preaching of the Gospel. The King has authority and influence in the worldly domain around him.

Yes. You will have worldly influence.

Do your small part with commitment and consistency. Claim God’s part and trust it.

Remember that even if you leave God, He will never leave you.