Discouragement creeps up quietly. It can be one careless word spoken out of context. One song that makes you look at yourself differently. One clip that, in the moment seems inconsequential, but inconspicuously gnaws at your confidence. Discouragement is like hot embers dropped into your hand, and instead of dropping them on the floor, you hang on to them and add fuel to the embers, igniting an all-consuming fire.
It is easy to tear down than to build up. When you see a flaw, it's easy to justify destroying a thing than to see the beauty in something despite the flaw. Because flaws, sometimes, require you to change your perspective; they require you to put in a little work of imagination, of expanding beyond what is obvious; it requires you to see possibilities. Whereas tearing down doesn’t necessarily require that.
It's easy to add fuel to a small ember because your perspective is off. Your focus is distorted. It's easy to run with the word of discouragement and finish the job yourself because it's difficult to see the entire picture. It's easy to bring down something that you expect to look a certain way, rather than accept it as good. But when you make a little progress, more than you may have made prior, it is worthy of celebration. Be like God, who spoke, "Let there be light" and light came and He saw that it was good. Before He'd gone further into separating it from the dark, and naming it day and night, distinguishing one from the other, He saw that it was good. Do not be discouraged that you've done a little or could have done more. The bit that you did, see it as good, because there is room for you to add on and perfect it.
Discouragement creeps up to turn your focus from the progress you have made, and measures it as insignificant. It amplifies challenges and makes them insurmountable. However, these Goliaths are to awaken your inner David, the creative one who doesn't fight with sword and shield, but with a sling and a rock. You give Goliath an inch, he takes ten miles and sows magic seeds of confusion and fear that sprout up quickly and unrelentingly. And if you marinate in these thoughts too long, you begin to rationalize and become uncertain and even more fearful.
Beware of the dark place your mind takes you; it is not a healthy or safe place to reside. But strangely, you allow yourself to slide there because it feels like a place that you belong. And in as much as you know you don’t belong there, there’s a heaviness that seemingly overpowers you and keeps you imprisoned. You can’t think or dream beyond this place.
But never forget: for every seed sown, there's a time frame for its harvest. Whatever seeds you have been given, plant them. Because there's always seed time and harvest time. In each seed is encoded a specific time to flourish and a particular purpose for its existence. Plant, and in planting, cultivate, water it…do what you must. Your seed has a destiny; steward it well. After a time, it'll produce what it has been purposed to, if you don't allow discouragement to cause your seed to dry in the soil.
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Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my saviour and my God! Now I am deeply discouraged, but I will remember you—even from distant Mount Hermon, the source of the Jordan, from the land of Mount Mizar. I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tides sweep over me. But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life. “O God my rock,” I cry, “why have you forgotten me? Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies?” Their taunts break my bones. They scoff, “Where is this God of yours?” Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my Saviour and my God!” Psalm 42:5-11
~SoulTea~
Pic via Instagram: @aja_thewriter
