Catalyst Track: Shaken // Day Three

This week’s track comes from Tim Tebow’s book, Shaken.

Whatever obstacles you are facing, whatever struggle you have with not fitting in, whether you feel you aren’t pretty enough, strong enough, big enough, fast enough, or smart enough, know that God created you perfect. You are wonderfully made. You are skillfully made. You are not an accident. You are not a mistake.

In this 3-day track, Tim challenges us in a challenging topic that seems to come up frequently in life – identity. As a leader, having a solid understanding of identity can frequently feel under attack as you launch that new product, receive feedback about your sermons or run your team meetings.

But it’s vital to continuously be reminded of the true reality of your identity so that you can lead from a place of strength.

Maybe you thought you had identity figured out, but you’ve struggled with worry and envy. If that’s true, take the next couple of days to look at your own heart and behavior and be reminded of truth. 

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Day 3 – The Crab Mentality

I don’t know why it seems we are better at tearing others down than lift­ing them up or cheering them on. This reminds me of a story I heard. Put a bunch of crabs in a shallow bucket and watch what happens. When a crab or two—the ones with the more adventurous personalities—attempt to climb out, the others who are below them will reach out and pull them back down. The bottom crabs will keep doing this so that no crab will ever escape.

Okay, so you and I are not crabs! But sometimes we share that same mentality: If I can’t have something—that great job, that perfect family, the dream come true, good health, an answer to prayer—neither can you. Some­times when we’re facing adversity or hardship in our lives, we want everyone else to suffer with us. It’s not fair that life moves on for others when our world is falling apart. And sometimes, people around us, even those closest to us, try to drag us down for whatever reason. And that hurts!

I don’t know whether you are the one being criticized or you’ve done your share of criticizing. But I bet if we’re honest, we’ve all had our share of both. Either way, we must make a conscious choice to avoid strife, jealousy, and division. We need to stop being deceived by the negative words others say against us. And we need to stop saying negative things about others. The criticizing, the name-calling, the complaining—none of this adds value, to others or to ourselves.

 

CHALLENGE:

Think of someone you are either:

1. Tend to be jealous of
2. You have received a lot of criticism from

What step will you take this week to actively love that person instead of letting there be strife, jealousy or division (even if it’s just in your own heart)?