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Second Glance

by Shannon Heiden
6/21/2009 / Devotionals

Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." (Isaiah 30:20-21 NIV) Word 980

Beautiful One, we will experience many times when life will have dropped us. There are those moments that seem like an eternity where we will find ourselves face down, and are struggling to get up. Then, when we manage to finally get up, something else comes along and knocks us down, again.

It's not what puts us down that is the issue we must overcome. The issue is; are we going to be like the many and stay down?.... or will we be the few that even if we are down for the count, right now, there's no way we're staying there?

Did you know that a baby giraffe when it is born, falls 10 feet from its mother's womb and usually lands on its back. From this position it considers the world for the first time. Then the mother giraffe rudely introduces its offspring to the reality of life.

The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look. Then she positions herself directly over her calf and does the most unreasonable thing. She swings her long, pendulous leg outward and kicks her baby, so that it is sent sprawling head over heels. When it doesn't get up, the violent process is repeated over and over again.

The struggle to rise is momentous.

As the baby calf grows tired, the mother kicks it again to stimulate its efforts. Finally, the calf stands for the first time. Then the mother giraffe kicks it off its feet again. Why? She wants it to remember how it got up. What seems like a cruelty and rejection is only done out of love. To teach the baby giraffe to be quick, and alert and to never forget how to get up. So when a predator comes, it will be able to survive......

Beautiful One, I am always amazed at the lives of men and women who have done great things. At first glance into their stories, it is easy to see their success. Money, fame, influence and power. But upon second glance, beneath the surface. There you will find, adversity, challenges, injustices and circumstances that no one would believe, if they were not told.

Each one of us is given a life. Every one of us is afforded the same twenty four hours a day and the same air that we breathe. We share the same earth and we each are given a free will to do the things each of us has determined in our own heart to do. Some may have had more love, support and resources. And these things do help to make it easier.

But, our obstacle in life is not a money issue or how many people support us. The challenge we face is; if we really want something badly enough?... do we have the fortitude, tenacity and the determination to not give up until we get it?

Plain and simple. No excuses. No poor me, no one knows what I've been through. There are people in this world that have had absolutely nothing. No one to help, love and support them and yet, they have chosen to not leave this earth the same way they came.

Beautiful One, are you one of them?

Take a look at where you're at right at this moment. Do you realize that where you're at is largely due to the choices you have made? Forget about what others have done to you and the circumstances of your life. They do not define you. People and issues come and go.

This is your life.....

Is it what you want it to be?

If the answer is no, then I have good news for you. You have the power and the ability to make your life a powerful, influential and inspiring message for the world to hear.

But doesn't life know how to happen?

It seems cruel at times, doesn't it?

At first look, there's a lot of tears and "why" seems to be the question of the year. But upon second glance, after you've spent some time in the dirt. You soon realize that any mountaintop worth ascending is going to leave some scars.

Not to be cruel, as one might've thought. To be a reminder. A reminder of where we once laid low. So that when it is our time to arise, and ascend, we never forget what it took to get us there.

Beautiful one, great people have great pain. The greater the people, the greater the adversities and challenges they must face and overcome.

That's why their great!

The late Irving Stone spent a lifetime studying greatness, writing biographies of such men as Michelangelo, and Vincent van Gogh, "I write about people who in their life have a vision or dream of something that should be accomplished and they go to work. When asked if there was a common thread running through theses great men's lives, he noted yes. "They are beaten over the head, knocked down, vilified, and for years they get nowhere. But every time they're knocked down they stand up. You cannot destroy these people. And at the end of their lives they've accomplished some modest part of what they set out to do." "Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching from Leadership Journal Baker Books

That's right my friend, no one can destroy you. You and I are solely responsible for the talent the Master has allotted to us ... and making something of it. Who really cares what people think?

In the end, wouldn't we rather hear the voices silenced because we shocked them all? Or will we hear everyone clapping, saying ha, ha, look at them, they didn't make it.

All because,

....we forgot, to take a second glance.

Beautiful One, just believe.

Shannon Heiden
[email protected]
changingonelifereachingmany.typepad.com

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