Have you ever seriously wondered how much of what’s happening is about you?
I’ve been reflecting on the issue of temporary setbacks.
Initially this wound on my backside seemed to be a two-week hiccup. Various complications lengthened the process. Doc’s best guess now puts resumption of training at about June 1. That’ll mean roughly forty days of inactivity.
Forty is sort of a special Biblical number. The Flood lasted forty days, the Israelites wandered forty years in the desert. Jesus began His ministry with a forty-day temptation in the wilderness.
Hmmm…those all appeared to be setbacks, at the time.
I’m not willing to conclude that God intentionally caused an infected wound and a bunch of complex drug reactions to create a forty-day trial for me. But whether He caused this situation or whether He’s working within it, the result is an unexpected, unwanted test.
Rick Warren wrote a wonderful best-selling book called The Purpose Driven Life in which he took readers on a forty-day search for purpose and meaning in their lives. He began the book with one of my favorite opening lines of all time:
It’s not about you.
Now there’s an interesting thought
What if this whole situation isn’t about me? What if it’s about the people who are watching?
What if I already know what I need to know to get through this? What if the whole point isn’t “what I learn” but “what I share”?
What if it’s not about me?
I keep saying that the ride is about something bigger than myself. This forty-day setback will make the training much more difficult, but if it’s not about me then maybe that’s the point. Maybe others need to know that “easy” isn’t what’s important.
I don’t know the right answers. I do know that when I shrink the whole thing down to being centered around me, it seems kind of petty and insignificant.
I hope it’s about something bigger.
What’s a situation in which you have a hard time getting yourself out of the center?
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