Amped Up and Ready to Take the World by Storm
Thanks to my grandson #4 who provided the inspiration for this blog. If you follow me, you know that I stay with my two youngest grandsons when their parents go out of town. On Saturday, I was up at my usual “comin’ alive” time of 4:30 am. When I came out to the living area, it was already lit up. Brennan, with a big smile and high octane energy was up and at em’ since 4 am! He declared his new lease on life with off-the-charts enthusiasm.
He was pumped after listening to a six-minute, adrenaline-packed, motivation podcast the day before. He wanted me to hear it. I did. It was compelling and it was a revelation to Brennan. It was about going to bed early at 9 am (he did) and getting up early — the extra three hours that true champions live by. Brennan accepted the challenge.
Apparently, the most successful people today are those who get up early to start their day. Brennan’s dad is one of those who is an early riser, spending up to an hour in morning devotions with his Bible before he runs for miles. Those are Brennan’s words.
First, I saw him go to his dad’s office and listen to an audiobook (his homework) and take notes. Then he read some scriptures and took notes of how they spoke to him. He found goals he had written in the 9th grade and was so impressed, he put them up on his bedroom wall. He put up other goals to live by. Then, he headed out to Gold’s Gym which would open at 5 am. Plenty of time for a shower and breakfast before heading to San Antonio for his baseball tournament. To my surprise, after only gone for 10 minutes, Brennan burst through the door with a look of “wind knocked out of his sails.” Gold’s Gym doesn’t open until 7 am on weekends.
His best-laid plans came to a screeching halt. Bless his heart! After me pumping him back up with ideas of how to use his time, he sat out to make the change. He asked for his dad’s water running belt. He would run for at least 30 minutes. He was back in 10. Then he determined to do 100 push-ups. He did three. All that energy and enthusiasm had drained out of him. With the help of his girlfriend who came over to wish him well at his baseball games that day and, hopefully, a big win at the games, I know he’ll recalibrate and get back with his best-laid plans.
We have all had the wind knocked out of our sails at one time or another. We are in a good place. We feel confident and optimistic. Life is good and we feel blessed to be alive and then BOOM! Best-laid plans go awry. It rains on our parade. What we thought was a job well done, someone else saw it as a miserable failure. We thought we won the part or earned the promotion, but it was given to someone else. We were rejected when we thought that “someone” was going to be our “forever after”.
Back to my life scripture and ever the most evidence-of-truth scripture is Romans 8:28 “ALL things (even the smallest to largest disappointments) work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purposes.” Better than our plans for ourselves, God has incredible plans for us. God’s purpose for our lives goes way beyond times of disappointment. In fact, that disappointment today may just be the SET UP for His divine appointment where hope is found, and comeback has major assignments that produce many successes and joys. With that mindset and set up, we ARE ready to take the world on by storm!