Thriving in Change: Unleash Your Growth and Strengthen Your Bond with God

Greetings, greetings, greetings, Welcome. Welcome my sister, Welcome my brother to the road. Let's travel the more of God. I am Regina D Jemisin and I am here with the amazing, the insightful, and my brother and my friend, Doug Smith, Say hello to the people, Hey family, hope everyone is well today. All right. well, we are hopping right in there and continuing our conversation about growth, continuing our conversation about growth. And we want to hop right back in here because growth, when we talk about growth, the aspect of that increase in our life, the aspect of being stretched, the aspect of being made better, growth right, we talked last time about growth and we kind of started to talk about what nourishes you, where your roots are planted, and things like that. We wanted to hop into this and cut at it a different way. We wanted to talk about really the truth that growing is the very nature of life. Growth, growing is the very nature of life. like that, literally, as you and I sit, as you're listening, as I'm talking and we're sitting here, growing is the very nature of life. How do we know? Because, even microscopically, our hair or our nails, or there are some scales, i think, sales growing on our bodies right now We can't see them, but it literally is happening. Why? Because the very nature of life is growth, the very way that things are made. And so, while there are so many other aspects of life that are kind of a mainstay struggle and strife and challenge in the ebb and flow of life, those things are part of what it is to be and live in the human condition. But what we want to say is, as the more of God, this conversation that we continue to be in for the road less traveled, the more of God we want to say to you that direct your attention to that. the nature of life for you, as someone desiring to be close to God, that just hold on to that. the nature of life is growth, because I think that'll frame your day, it'll frame your life, it'll frame things differently if you know that the very of nature, of how things should be and how things really are biologically and scientifically, is growth, is how it is What you got, doug.

So I'm a big kid at heart. I love cartoons, comic books and one of my favorite films is The Lion King. I just love that movie. I love everything about that movie.

I love that movie. I'm sorry.

There's the one scene where Mufasa is holding up his son and all the animals are looking at it, and then, later on, the young man is out with the king and they're talking about the circle of life, right, how everything changes and everything needs everything to maintain this circle of life. So if you are not changing and not growing, then you're really not living. You are simply passing time and you can't be afraid of growing, of changing. It's a fantastic process to understand that the things that you knew, the person that you were five years ago, is no longer the person that you are today. Yes, there's a relationship there. Yes, there you know, the core of how God constructed you is still there, but you are a different person. Every day is a new day, filled with new challenges, filled with new obstacles, new rewards, new setbacks, and we are designed to be able to overcome any and everything with God's help, because we are changing. God doesn't stay in one place. God moves And so we should move, right, his nature doesn't change, but he moves And he has designed us to move. He has designed us to be responsive. If we were to stay the same, with the same understanding as who we were when we were five years old. Can you imagine your five-year-old self being able to deal with the challenges that you are dealing with today? It is almost impossible for me to think that my five-year-old self is capable of handling the things that I am tasked with, the things that I'm responsible for, the places that I have to go, the lives that I have to interact with. I can't do that as a five-year-old right. I have to do that as a 50-something-year-old, with 50-year-old Doug Smith skills, with 50-year-old Doug Smith wisdom and 50-year-old Doug Smith goofiness at times. 50-year-old Doug Smith strength and weaknesses. But know that when I get to 60, if God gives me the grace to get to 60, there are going to be some things that I do at 60 that I was unable to do in my 50s because I will have changed. Wow Yeah.

That's true, right there. That the very nature, because you will have changed. Well, let me back up. If you do not honor that change, if you do not engage that change, if you do not take on growth seriously, what you'll find yourself is with more strife and more stress, because you're literally going against the very nature of life. Let me break this down another way. Try and stay the same and see how hard that is. Try, and those people that resist change won't change with technology, won't change with the evolution of time, won't change with the very nature of the ebb and flow of the seasons. You try and wear summer clothes one is winter time. See how that works, right. Try and wear winter clothes. One is summertime. See how that works. Just the real basics of if you do not change and grow through change and really embrace the growth of life, you're literally working against the grain of how life works. It takes way more effort, way more stress, way more resources and it isn't consistent with the nature of God and the nature of a full life. I'm not just telling me that there's hard work in growth, right, like there's a whole lot of lessons between that five year old and that 55 year old. Well, a lot of lessons. You know what I'm saying, but oh my God, how many times have you heard people say if I knew then what I know now? Right, we all wish we could do you know some age over again with the wisdom we got now, right?

That's right.

Because, why? Because the nature of life is that you know there is growth And so, people of God, i really encourage you, push you, implore you to measure your life by a measure of growth, a measure of increase, a measure of more of God in your life, so that you really can be connected to the things that matter, the things that support your growth and the things that show you how amazing God is.

So let me throw this out And some of you I'm going to ask your forgiveness for saying what I'm about to say, because it's used in really a negative connotation a lot of times, as it is used in connection with people, and I remember as a child in grade school, you could get into fights if somebody called you this and it's retarded Right We have. When you don't allow yourself to grow, what you're really doing is being in a state of retardation. It's the action of delaying or slowing the product or development. Wow. And so we have some people walking around on this planet that are retarded not because they lack mental acuity, but because they won't allow themselves to grow. They won't allow themselves to change. They won't allow themselves the opportunity to take advantage of what God has for them. Yeah Yeah, it may be a willful thing, or it may be one and we talked about this in the last episode one of fear that they're so afraid of what is to come because they hold on to the what is, and a closed mouth can't get fed.

Yeah, that's good, that's good, That is so good. Yeah, that's good. And look, people of God, just hold on to it. Hold on to the idea that you're not committed to being a retarded person. That's just keeping it real. Like, hold on to the idea that you're not going to be the one Like you, just not going to be the one that's left behind. That's hold on to stuff you should have been let go of. You won't be the one. So I think that says it. I think that's it, that's it right there. Like don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, push against the development of your life and your spirit.

So if you want some word on the matter, let me direct you to Philippians 3 13. Rather than I count, not myself to have apprehended it, but this one thing I do for getting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. That means change, so don't be retarded That is what that is. Don't be retarded.

Another translation will say press on towards the mark.

Pressing towards the mark. That's right.

Forget, forget the former things.

If you made a mistake yesterday, forget the former things. Don't live in that mistake. Maybe, maybe relationship Did not end the way that you wanted to 25 years ago, but don't live in that past. Don't be so bound up that you can't appreciate the relationships that you have right now The God is giving you the opportunity to step into.

Don't be retarded do not be retarded. That is it. That's it. We love you, we bless you, we thank you And measure some growth this week, measure some growth in the days ahead. We'll see you next time. Amen.