A devotional by Sandy Martin…

It had been a particularly stressful week and I was numbing my brain by scrolling through some video clips from “America’s Got Talent” on YouTube.  Now, don’t get all judgy… you do it too! 😊 But as I watched, there was one that caught my eye and my heart.

A contestant, who described himself as a teacher and father of 5 children, was asked, what was his motivation in coming on the show. He simply stated that it has always been his dream to be a professional singer and he wanted to show his children that they should pursue their dreams.

He then told the story about how all 5 of his children came into his family as foster children. Much of their lives was based on just surviving. Then he then made a profound statement. He said, “When you’re just surviving, you don’t get to think about pursuing your dreams”.

What does your life look like? Are you just surviving or is there space to dream?

Don’t get me wrong, there are days where we just simply survive the day. But when there have been long periods of time, especially in more formative years, when a person is “just surviving”, survival can become a lifestyle. We can even shape our lives to be in constant survival mode because that’s how we think life is. We let outside influences control us and demand out attention and find ourselves constantly in a “flight or fight” position.

So, what pushes a person into survival mode? Sometimes it’s triggered by the threat or reality of a physical attack, verbal and emotional abuse, possibly the abuse of power, or feeling powerless. But most times “survival mode” kicks in because of hopelessness. We come to believe that there’s no one to help or defend us; there’s no advocate in sight. A person in survival mode can be surrounded by people and yet still feel completely alone because they believe no one who will risk their reputation, time, or their own safety to be an advocate. Painful? The worst!

How do you know if you are in “survival mode?” Here are some questions to ask:

• Do you feel like every day is just you against the world?

• Are most days just trying to put “one foot in front of the other”?

• Do you spend your life energy strategizing ways to have greater control over events and people in your life?

For additional signs and symptoms of survival mode, click here, here, and here.

As a Christian, we have an Advocate in Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

1 John 2:1 But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever.

Because we have an Advocate, we can live life with the full assurance that we don’t need to always be in control. We don’t always need to be perfect or stress over knowing enough or being enough. The Holy Spirit (and Jesus) is our Advocate.

So, when you feel like you’re just surviving, when your shoulders are not strong enough to bear the weight of your problems, then it’s time to give God-sized problems to your heavenly Father. God delights in seeing you step into His dream and design for your life. Go for it! You have got an Advocate. He is for you, so who can stand against you?