FROM THE ASHES: RISE

Faith • Rebuilding

Originally published 3 January 2021 • Updated for Mighty Man of Valor

There are seasons in life that strip away things you thought defined you.

Plans don't work out. Relationships change. Doors close. Things you were convinced you needed suddenly aren't there anymore.

And sometimes you're left looking at what's left thinking, what am I supposed to do with this?

But something falling apart doesn't mean everything is destroyed.

Sometimes the season you would have avoided at all costs ends up showing you exactly what needed to change. It exposes weaknesses. It reveals what you've been relying on. Sometimes it even removes things you probably wouldn't have had the courage to let go of yourself.

And somewhere in all of that, God starts rebuilding the man underneath it.

IT TAKES COURAGE TO START AGAIN

I've learned that starting again takes a different kind of courage.

Not the kind where you pretend you're not hurt, scared or uncertain.

It's being able to acknowledge all of those things and still decide they don't get the final say over your life.

At some point, you have to decide that where God is calling you matters more than staying somewhere simply because it's familiar.

That doesn't mean pretending nothing happened.

Face it.

Learn from it.

Be honest about your part in it.

Take responsibility for what belongs to you.

Then move.

Because you won't always have control over what happens to you. But you do have responsibility for the man you become afterwards.

DISCIPLINE WILL CARRY YOU WHERE MOTIVATION CAN'T

Some days you'll feel ready to rebuild.

Other days you won't want to do any of it.

That's exactly why you can't build your life around motivation.

Motivation is a feeling. Discipline is what happens when the feeling isn't there anymore.

Pray when you don't particularly feel like praying.

Train when staying comfortable would be easier.

Keep your word.

Show up for your family.

Do the work you've been putting off.

Have the conversation you've been avoiding.

Take responsibility even when blaming somebody else would feel better.

A man can't build his entire life around how he feels that day.

Motivation might get you moving.

Discipline is what keeps you moving.

THE VALLEY STILL HAS PURPOSE

Some of the biggest lessons I've learned about myself didn't come when everything was going well.

They came in the valley.

Because the valley exposes things.

Where does your confidence actually come from?

What happens to your discipline when life gets difficult?

Who are you when things don't go your way?

What do your relationships reveal about you?

What do you keep running from?

And where is your faith when you can't see what God is doing?

If you're willing to be honest, difficult seasons can show you things about yourself that comfort never could.

I'm not saying every painful thing that happens is something God deliberately sent. And I'm definitely not saying suffering itself is good.

I'm saying it doesn't have to be wasted.

God can still use what you've walked through to develop wisdom, endurance and character in you.

“Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope” Romans 5:3–4

There's a difference between speaking from the mountaintop and speaking from the trenches.

Mighty Man of Valor started much closer to the trenches.

I didn't start this because I had figured life out. I didn't start it because I'd won every battle or had some perfect formula for becoming a man.

I started it while I was still becoming one.

That's really where From the Trenches, the first episode of the Rise Up Podcast, comes from.

Because I've realised God doesn't necessarily wait for your life to become neat before He starts working on you.

Sometimes the rebuilding starts while you're still standing in the mess.

And that changes the question.

Instead of spending your whole life asking:

“Why did this happen to me?”

At some point you have to start asking:

“Who am I becoming through this?”

WHAT WILL YOU BUILD FROM HERE?

Eventually you have to decide what you're going to do with what's left.

You can keep staring at the ashes.

Or you can build.

Your past can teach you without controlling you.

Your failures can humble you without defining you.

Your wounds can be real without becoming your entire identity.

And just because something ended doesn't mean your story ended with it.

It's actually one of the ideas I'm exploring while writing Rising Through Fire & Faith.

Recognising what needs to change isn't enough.

Eventually you have to do something about it.

Faith has to affect how you live.

Responsibility has to mean ownership.

Discipline has to become something you practise.

Purpose has to become more than something that sounds good when you talk about it.

So I think every man needs to ask himself some uncomfortable questions from time to time:

What actually needs rebuilding in my life?

What responsibility have I been avoiding?

What habits do I keep defending that don't belong in the life I'm asking God for?

Where is God asking me to trust Him instead of holding onto what feels familiar?

And ultimately:

What kind of man am I becoming?

You don't need the whole road mapped out before you take the next step.

I certainly don't.

But you can seek God.

You can take responsibility.

You can become more disciplined.

You can make a different decision today than you made yesterday.

You can keep becoming.

So when something in your life gets reduced to ashes, don't automatically assume that's where the story ends.

Sometimes that's where the rebuilding starts.

Rise.

CONTINUE THE JOURNEY

FROM THE TRENCHES

Rise Up Podcast — Episode 1

Mighty Man of Valor wasn't built from the mountaintop. From the Trenches is where the conversation begins: faith, struggle, responsibility and becoming while you're still in the middle of it.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE →

RISING THROUGH FAITH & FIRE

A book currently in development.

Rising Through Faith & Fire is being written around many of the same questions explored here: faith, responsibility, discipline, purpose and what it actually takes to become the man God has called you to be.

COMING SOON