Pump It Up! Live Elated, Not Deflated Through Disappointing Daysنموونە

Shiver me timbers - Pirates are persistent!

I’ll share a personal pirate example from my dinghy days. I felt a pirate called ‘failure’ try to hijack my dinghy. This persistent pirate told me that I was a failure for not being able to find a job. It mocked me, telling me I was unskilled, unemployable, and not good enough. The failure pirate pointed out other people I knew in the same situation and highlighted how circumstances hadn’t shifted for me as they had for them. The failure pirate loved to remind me of the accomplishments of everyone around me and told me I was falling way behind. The failure pirate was in my face, jeering at me because I couldn’t financially support my family as I always have done before. This pirate did a good job as I took ‘on board’ what they said and accepted this sense of being a failure for a while.

Along with the failure pirate came, another of its shipmates called the pirate of embarrassment. This equally persistent pirate told me I should be embarrassed because of my situation. Embarrassed that I was unemployed. Embarrassed that people kept asking if I’d found work, and I had to keep saying no. I felt a real sense of shame - particularly as time went on and nothing shifted.

I believe we need to really wrestle with these pirates and get to the root of why they are ruffling our feathers. I wrestled these failure and embarrassment pirates by redefining what success and fruitfulness meant, and in doing so, it made me realise I’d been believing lies about what they truly are. I found a new and godly definition of success that I was happy with, secure in, and I knew that I was not a failure and needn’t be embarrassed by my dinghy days. God helped me in my pirate wrestling to understand and accept the truth of his word that I am dearly loved just as I am, but those pesky persistent pirates took time to process. Making my pirates walk the plank didn’t happen overnight.

God’s word is living and active - it’s a double-edged sword - the most powerful weapon against pirates. But as Col 3:16 says, we must allow God’s word to dwell in us richly. We need to read it, absorb it, meditate on it, believe it, and then we can effectively put it into action.

Reflection

Do you recognise the particular pirates most likely to attempt to commandeer your dinghy?

How can you ensure that you personally are properly processing your pirates?