[Tuesday's Devotional] - Facing the Challenge (1)

Today I'm going talk you through the first of the three scary possibilities that face all of us when we are dealing with significant challenges:

Possibility 1) I will crack up

This is clearly the scariest of all possibilities and the time when it feels the most likely is around 3am if we are awake and tossing and turning over our concerns. 'How will I … pay the bills? Manage the workload? Fill my days?' These questions are hard enough at the best of times but when, to cap it all, you can't sleep (and let's face it, any stressful challenge does tend to disturb our sleep pattern) it can all feel overwhelming.

So how will you avoid 'cracking up'? Partly it will come down to taking care of yourself, making sure you get time off, learning to accept that there are things you cannot change, lowering your expectations and sometimes, when necessary, taking the appropriate medication.

It will also help if you can learn to 'eat pie'. What do I mean by this?

This particular piece of wisdom has been gleaned from Men in Black 3 and is given by Agent K to Agent J at the point where imminent global disaster (AKA the end of the world) seems inevitable and neither character knows what to do about it, so one says to the other: 'Let's go and eat pie'. Sure enough, after a sufficiently long pie-eating pause the solution to the crisis emerges. So what does 'pie-eating' mean? (apart from the obvious)

Well, it means stopping and doing something completely different and totally absorbing to take your mind off the pressing crisis and waiting for a way forward to emerge.

It might be riding a bike, knitting a shawl, going for a long walk, reading a book, having a long conversation with someone you love.

Jesus taught his disciples to 'eat pie' regularly. Often he did it by literally pushing them out into the lake: 'Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him, while he dismissed the crowd' Matthew 14:22. In other words, 'push off you lot, you've done enough today'. And again, 'Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake' Mark 3:7

Where do you go to be re-fuelled? Refreshed? Encouraged? Go regularly with Jesus to that place and you won't crack up.

With love

Sheila Bridge