Disappointments can be devastating! They can make you feel pointless and unvalued. They can set you back and disturb your journey. Being let down by someone you love can sting worse than a cloud of stinging hornets piercing you at once. Being disappointed by a work of effort, not achieving something you want desperately (a dream) and rejection by others can be equally as painful. There are a million different ways to be disappointed if you think about it, but I think any disappointment is a disappointment and is felt deeply by the one enduring the hardship.

I myself have faced many disappointments. They have rocked my world at times. Today, I am facing that very thing and all those icky feeling that try to stick to you like tar no matter how hard you try to rise above. The muck clings to you, pulling you deeper and deeper into the mire and soon you feel hopeless and like you can’t breathe. Drowning you in a pit of bleakness. What is one to do?

I have learned that when disappointed, our fight or flight instinct kicks in and those feelings can be overwhelming. More than not, we opt for flight! We want to fly away, never to look back. Soar to better days where this is just a spec on the horizon never to touch us again. Yes please and can you make it a tropical island?

How unrealistic! We all know that’s not possible. So many people would be devastated and left in your wake of selfishness, no matter how terrible it is. Life is full of disappointments…… so I keep telling myself. I got to thinking about this over my morning cup of coffee. You know, when the morning is fresh, the birds sing at their best, your home is quiet and the coffee is steaming with hazelnut goodness. Mmm! Anyway, I said to myself….. self, you either wallow in the junk and allow it to swallow you hole or you can fight this, because, flying a way to better days is not happening no matter how much you wish or wiggle your nose.

With that, I decided to FIGHT! We all are warriors in this great big word called LIFE. Sometimes, warriors get wounded. Disappointments cause you to become a wounded warrior on the battlefield of life. When wounded what do you do? You seek out help! You need to be tended to and mended back to fighting strength to wage war another day.

I always have seen myself as a warrior. I do not easily give up and I have broad shoulders that bear much. I’ve always been called one tough cookie and was even referred to as “Scrappy” in school, but even the toughest warriors get wounded beyond what they can heal from on their own.  So, where do we, the ones that bear the brunt of family issues, or are trying to survive a devastating illness, abusive relationships, made a mess of their  own lives or simply is fed up with life in general…… go for help?

I’m sad to say, I THOUGHT I DID NOT KNOW. My situation caused my flight or fight instinct to pick flight. I have been running away from the very source of strength I need to get through this. Disappointment also has a weird way of making you feel unworthy of anything! I felt unworthy and to shell-shocked to run to my God and yield all my concerns to him. Instead, I have been carrying them around like dead weight and the extra nuisance has slowed my reaction to fight my enemy and he has been able inflict some deep wounds on me. You cannot fight properly if you’re strapped to an unwanted load of garbage. It will hinder you at every turn. Garbage is rot in the process. Rot will kill healthy things.

I was told a story once. A young man killed his younger brother and for his punishment he was made to strap the boy’s body to his back and bear his dead weight at all times. The young man did not think that was to bad, it was better than being beheaded. Soon, the boy’s body began to rot with stench and maggots and as the young man tried to live his life his energy and stamina was robbed from him. The flesh of the boy was rotting away from the bones and as more of the young mans back was exposed, it was plain to see that the rot seeped into his healthy flesh and he was being rotted away from the outside in. He was infested with disease and maggots eating away at his once young and vigor body.  He died a slow and painful death as the burden of his brother’s rot ate him alive.

Our disappointments and hurts are a lot like that. We carry them on our backs like a burden of dead weight whether they are ours or our brothers. As they slowly eat us alive rendering us helpless, the enemy comes in like a flood at our weakest and has a field day. We must understand….Jesus is worthy, causing us to be worthy of His freedom of decaying rot! Being worthy we can lay our disappointments down at the feet of Jesus, shed our rot, and stand. Flight will make you forget for a while, but sooner or latter you will have to land and when you do, you better believe what you thought you left behind as a spec on the horizon will find you! When it does, it will have picked up momentum and have gathered some of it’s friends for the journey and hit you so hard, you don’t know if you will ever recover!

Disappointments are tough, but my God is tougher. We, wounded warriors, have to find our way back to the cross. Crawl, climb, run…. do whatever it takes….even have a meeting with yourself over a cup of coffee to get to the source of our help! We need His healing salve put on our wounds as He mends us. Then, as He tends to us, He will hide us under the shadow of His wing till we are strong once again.  My friends, it’s time to rejoin the battle. We are warriors! We can overcome disappointments and achieve our dreams. We do not have to let someone else’s garbage rot our strength. Immediately, we can take it to Jesus, lay it down and move into the next stance of a warrior. Decide today that you will not carry the rot of disappointment on your back! I did! It will be a battle I know, as it will try to raise it’s ugly head again. That’s life.. right?  God never said life would be easy, but what He did say is that you will never be alone.

Step back, put your eyes on Jesus and know He’s got your back. Rot cannot exist on one who’s back is shielded by the glory of the King, unless they run from under His cover and help strap that sucker on. And, that’s is exactly what it will do to…. suck the joy of life right out of you! I will not run from my God…. I will run to Him when disappointments try to take me down. The code of a true warrior!

When I woke this morning, I was a wounded warrior and rot was eating me alive.  Tonight, when I lay my head to bed, I will rest as a warrior.  I am worthy and I shed my rot at the feet of my King. He will demolish it and I again will rise to the occasion and stand as a champion. I slay disappointment with the sword of the spirit and say….”If my God is for me…..who can be against me,” surly not disappointment.

Rise above my fellow warriors. Join the battle of life and know Jesus got your back and He’s waiting to dispose of the rot you carry. Declare…. I am the bride of Christ and though a thousand fall at my side, and though ten thousand die around me, these evils (disappointments) will not come near me! Now shout it…..I AM A WARRIOR!!!!!!

Psalms 144:1 Praise the Lord, who is my rock. He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle. NLT

  BRING IT ON!