“You Can Do This”

I’ve been intrigued by a TV program entitled “Running Wild With Bear Gryll”.  Gryll is a British adventurer, writer, television presenter and businessman. In this show he takes a celebrity on a wilderness adventure…skydiving, rappelling off 300’ cliffs, eating snakes, etc. At some point the celebrity is completely out of his comfort zone, somewhat paralyzed with fear, saying “I can’t do this”.  It’s then that  Bear says with calm and strength, “you can do this … you can do this.” Because of the confidence they have in him, they don’t quit and are able to conquer some pretty demanding feats. 

I find it a pretty neat show… probably because of the show itself, but also because Gryll has an impressive resume of being a British special forces, surviving a terrible parachute accident, being one of the youngest to climb Mount Everest, and leading “Alpha” Christian evangelistic courses. He does instill confidence in the people he leads. 

At  a recent meeting with some Christian friends, we were discussing how at times we all face situations where we just don’t want to do the next thing… we can be somewhat frozen, thinking “I just don’t want to do this”. One of the men said “when I get to this point I can almost hear Christ saying, Frank, you can do this… you can do this….just get up and do the next thing.” He drags himself up, takes the next step, and he gets thru it. It reminded me of the Bear Gryll adventures, except, it’s the Lord Jesus, not Bear, telling us “you can do this ….you can do this”.

At times of challenge when we are feeling inadequate and unable to take the next step, we really need trusted friends around us. We need those who know us and  will speak the truth to us….. we need to have confidence in them. “Dave, you can do this… take a deep breath… you can do this.” And we often surprise our self …wow, I didn’t think I could do that.

It’s really exhilarating when we do something we don’t think we can do…something outside our comfort zone. It may be a physical challenge , but more likely a spiritual challenge that causes us to trust the Lord in a deeper way.