Super Jesus Girl -- Pull Yourself Together!

Last week was a hard week for me.  Some hurtful things happened to me last week.   The emotional pain was so strong I physically hurt. I was distracted and found it difficult to focus on ministry.  I was like a wounded puppy licking her wounds, engulfed in self-pity and totally inward focused...

...That is until Saturday night.  I was on my bed talking to my husband (who has saved me thousands of dollars in therapy by the way!) about my pain.   I had been a mess all week, and he (in a sweet and loving way) decided the self-pity had to stop.  He wanted his confident wife back.  We need friends who will lovingly tell us when we have been moping long enough.  So, God used my husband and a Disney movie (once again) to speak to me. This time He used them to slap me out of self-pity.

Have you seen The Incredibles?  Great movie.  There is a scene in this movie, where the heroin (Elasti-girl) is having a pity party.  Now, she is Elasti-Girl!  She can stretch into any shape and she is married to Mr. Incredible, a super hero who lives up to his name.  Elasti-Girl is having a pity party because she is afraid Mr. Incredible has left her.  (That wasn't the case, he had just been captured by bad guys.)  Anyway, through sobs and snotty tissues, she asks a friend of hers what she should do.  Her friend emphatically replies while slapping her with a newspaper:

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!  WHAT DO YOU MEAN- 'WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?'  YOU ARE ELASTI-GIRL!!...PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER!...YOU WILL REMIND HIM OF WHO YOU ARE!"

God and my husband lovingly slapped me around (not literally).  He said in the same voice used in the movie, "What are you talking about?  What do you mean--what am I going to do?   You are Super Jesus Girl...PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER!"

He was right.  In that moment, everything changed.  I remembered who I was..I am Super Rockin Bloggin Jesus Girl!  I am Jesus' girl.  It doesn't matter what anyone does to me.  He is with me.  He is for me.  He is my shield.  He is my defender.  If anyone hurts me, they have to answer to Him, my Daddy.

Suddenly, He became my focus again and the pain was replaced with joy.  

The first part of self-pity is "self".  We aren't helping anyone else by focusing on our pain and ourselves. Elasti-girl couldn't do hero work and save her husband as long as she was just crying and feeling sorry for herself.  It was when she was reminded who she was that she was able to go out and save.

We are called to save.  We are called to be heroes to a lost and dying world.  We are called to encourage the broken and defend the innocent.  We are called to preach the gospel and reach out and minister to others.  It is hard to do hero work when we are inward focused.  To be who God called us to be, we have to be upward and outward focused.

We have a choice when we are hurt.  We can wallow in self-pity or we can remember who we are and remind ourselves we are HIS.

YOU ARE SUPER JESUS GIRL...PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER!!!  Now, go out and be the hero God has called you to be!    

"These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will  have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." John 16:33

"And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God." 
1 Samuel 30:6 (emphasis added)