Day 218- Letting Your Guard Down

📖Daily Reading

 Luke 5

🎥 Video  

Join me on my morning walk as we rise and shine together by walking through the Bible daily and learn a practical applicable coaching nugget from the ultimate life coach - our creator (whatever that means to you). No judgement zone here, all are welcome, we are all on a spiritual journey because we are after all spiritual beings having a human experience.

 

📝 Reflection 

 Luke 5: 4-6

   When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish.”  “Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.” And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear!

 

There is a thread of ‘letting down’ in chapter 5 of Luke. In the above story it is the letting down of fishing nets. But simultaneously you will see that Simon needed to let his guard down as well. He was skeptical and guarded about what Jesus was asking them to do. You can feel his disappointment from the amount of effort they had put into fishing but had come up empty handed.  He reluctantly agrees to Jesus’s request and then is amazed that they catch so many fish that the nets begin to tear and weigh the boats down.

When we let our guard down we let in and allow for possibility. Our self protection instincts are good and the intention is good to keep us from harm and disappointment, but it also can keep out abundance and blessing if we aren’t careful.

We see this happen to the pharisees and the religious teachers of the day, they are so guarded and worried about protecting God and their religion that they literally miss out on God right in front of them, in the form of Jesus. 

The next letting down example is the story of the paralyzed man. This one gets me every time, in a good way! There are some friends who have a paralyzed friend and they put their friend on a sleeping mat and carry him to see if Jesus will heal him. 💞 They get there and it is so crowed they can’t get in. So they decide to climb onto the roof and take tiles off of the roof and lower him through the roof in front of Jesus!

Can you imagine the effort that this took! Vs 19-20“But they couldn’t reach him because of the crowd. So they went up to the roof and took off some tiles. Then they lowered the sick man on his mat down into the crowd, right in from of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, “Young man, your sins are forgiven.” Just incredible love and no guardedness, just going for it!

Letting your guard down is vulnerable, it is risky and it is courageous. Brené Brown famous researcher, professor and author has written extensively about vulnerability and courage, she says “courage is born out of vulnerability, not strength.”  I hope you find this encouraging.

Your inner voice and ego might try to convince you that keep a protective wall up and being guarded is strong and and effective way to navigate life. But quite the opposite is true. While it does require strength to keep your guard up, it requires invulnerability, it is also exhausting and it limits the potential and possibilities you might otherwise have access to. 

So take the risk, let your guard down and let your nets fill up with so much fish that the nets tear! It is about letting, not forcing and not guarding. It is risky and it takes faith and courage! I am so encouraged every day as I read about all of these amazing humans that came before us, who took risks, who failed and also those who became blessed in their vulnerability and not having it ‘all together’.

Also, be that encourager for your friend who might be paralyzed in some way. We need to borrow courage from each other and carry, lift and help our friends when they can’t do it for themselves! 

✍🏼Daily Journal Prompt 

 Is there any area or relationship in your life where you are being guarded? How can you begin to let your guard down?

📖Tomorrows Reading

 Luke 6

Coaching Opportunity

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