Restoring the Image

My Tigger and Eeyore

It may seems strange but I have both an Eeyore and a Tigger figure on my desk.  Sometimes back at Fort Bragg, people would think that I had them for children to play with while I'm counseling their parents.  The truth is that they serve as reminders for me - so I brought them to Afghanistan with me.  I can't remember where I first got the idea, but I know that Randy Pausch talks about it in his book, The Last Lecture.

They serve to remind me that I have a choice how to approach every situation, every challenge, every day.  I can either be like Eeyore and have a negative attitude and approach everything like it's a chore, OR, I can be like Tigger and approach things with energy, positive focus, and a 'bounce-back' kind of attitude.

Here's the interesting thing to me...Tigger keeps falling over.  I know it's simply because the figure has him standing on two small feet so any small jarring of my desk makes him fall over.  Eeyore, on the other hand, is in his normal sitting position and never falls over.  It's simple physics, but the lesson here is powerful.  When you choose the TIgger approach in life, you may fall down quite a bit, but you never give up.  You bounce back up and continue with the positive attitude.  It doesn't take any effort at all to be negative (i.e. Eeyore just sitting there) and depressed. Anybody can do that.  Maybe that's why so many people seem to choose the Eeyore attitude.  What's important is that no matter how many times you fall, you get back up, and keep bouncing.

Obviously this can apply to so many areas of life - from continuing toward a goal after falling, to facing the grind of another day, to embracing God's forgiveness after stumbling, or maybe even making a change in approaching the new year.

So, just a little encouragement from...my Tigger and Eeyore.

 

Are you slowly shrinking?

Pretty crazy question but actually it's coming from the Bible.  I was recently reading through Hebrews and came to chapter 10 which ends with some powerful words.  Here's what it says starting in verse 37:

 "He who is coming will come and will not delay.  But my righteous one will live by faith.  And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.  But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved." (Hebrews 10:37-39)

But it doesn't really stop there.  That's where someone separated the chapters, but the original writer never put a chapter break there.  Listen to what comes right after that (which would have flowed continuously originally...)

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.  This is what the ancients were commended for....without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." (Hebrews 11:1-2, 6)

When you read those together (again, as they were written) you get the contrast that I think the original writer intended - the contrast of those who shrink back and those who press on by faith.  Many of us are familiar with the incredible accounts of faith in Hebrews 11 - we know it takes stepping out and believing God in tough situations - but the subtle danger that we often ignore is that to shrink back, we need only be passive.  The shrinking back occurs automatically when we simply do nothing.  It's kind of like building muscle in a gym.  It takes effort and working out regularly to build it, but to have it shrink away, just do nothing, and it will.

And so it is with your life of faith.  The question that begs to be asked of our souls is this - Is my life of faith more accurately described as active or passive?

or,

Are you moving forward in faith and actively believing God for something, or, are you slowly shrinking?