The David Alliance
Garth Heckman
PRESSED
Have you ever had a bad day?
Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận (Vietnam) was a Catholic archbishop held by the communist government for 13 years, nine of them in solitary confinement.
- choosing God rather than God's works.
- He refused to wait for release. He wrote that he would not wait, but would live each present moment and fill it with love.
Empathy fatigue - you just can’t care for what everyone else wants you to care about… you just run out of emotional energy.
Saving the planet
Saving the starving animals - Sara Mcgloughlin song…
Save the starving children
Help the kids in the hospital… its just in you anymore.
Help the elderly
Drill wells in Africa
Inner city school programs
burnout and isolation — absorbing grief, crisis, and pain week after week which does not fall into line with your values or gifting.
depression centers on (Anne-HE-Donia) anhedonia (the inability to feel pleasure, a kind of flattening across the board),
NINE INCH NAILS - HURT - I hurt myself today to see if I still feel, I focus on the pain the only thing that’s real.
demoralization - which centers on subjective incompetence — the felt sense that "I cannot cope with this, and nothing I do will change the outcome." You can be demoralized without being clinically depressed — someone can still feel things, still care, and still be capable, but have concluded that this particular fight is unwinnable, which is exactly the "give up on what's important".
THIS COULD SUM UP PAULS LIFE
Betrayal Trauma
Trauma inflicted on you by someone or a group that you built trust with.
*Here is what is interesting. The brain treats physical trauma and Betrayal Trauma as the same.
- Same intensity
- Same pain
- Same trauma
***BUT BETRAYAL TRAUMA IS WORSE BECAUSE YOU RELIVE IT AGAIN AND AGAIN.
HOW ARE YOU AT HANDLING PAIN?
BETRAYAL?
DISSAPOINTMENT…
ALL THIS AND MORE CONTINUALLY!!!!
2 Cor. 11: The Apostle PAUL WRITES
23 Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. 24 From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness— 28 besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?
How do you process suffering?
Does your theology change?
MY QUESTION IS - HOW DO YOU NOT WALK AWAY
GIVE UP
THROW IN THE TOWEL
I am enamored by not giving up. By people not giving up.
Navy Seal training - or BUDS
**The core finding: physical fitness doesn't predict who survives
psychological, mental, and identity traits are better predictors of success than physical strength or fitness scores.
What specifically separates the two groups
1 Identity, not willpower. Candidates who quickly adopt a self-concept as "someone who finishes what he starts" —
“I am more than a conqueror” Romans 8:37
2. How they interpret stress itself - this will make me stronger.
“This will make me more like X, greater intimacy. Romans 5:3-5
3. Chunking the suffering into pieces. Multiple graduates describe mentally breaking Hell Week's 120+ continuous hours into small segments — "just get to the next meal,"
MATTHEW 6:34 FOCUS JUST ON TODAY
Just get to my next quiet time
Just get to my next Sunday
Just get to my next Bible study
4. A genuinely surprising finding on when people quit. Not during the fight, the test or the trial….
but the moment there's a lull, the mind gets room to reconsider, negotiate, and rationalize quitting. The danger isn't always the hardest moment. Sometimes it's the first quiet moment after it.
KING DAVID
**Stay in the fight Spiritually
