Well, welcome back to Rising 365. I'm Mike Pena. This is your first time Rising 365 is a podcast committed to inspiring, supporting others to embrace the opportunity to rise with each new day.
You know, Rising Daily can be a challenge for many, including myself. And that is why I started this podcast. It is my hope that what you hear in these episodes will assist you in rising every day of your life.
Well, this is episode 14 and it's entitled, Letting Go. So last week, I read a story about a snake. And funny about that snake story, I also heard the audio story last week and the story goes like this.
So this snake is crawling through a tool shed on a farm. And as it's crawling through this tool shed, it comes across a saw blade that's on the ground. And as it slithers by the saw blade, the saw blade stabs into the snake.
The snake, thinking that it's being attacked, turns around and attacks the saw blade, thinking that it's being attacked. But upon biting the saw blade, of course, the snake injures itself.
So now the snake thinks in its mind that it's in a fight for its life. So with its mouth now injured, the snake thinks to itself, if I coil myself around the saw blade and squeeze as hard as I can, can maybe defeat this foe, not knowing that it's just a saw blade.
So the snake wraps itself around the saw blade and squeezes, not knowing what it is doing is actually healing itself.
The snake never took time to realize what was happening to them. Instead of looking back at the situation, the snake ended up dying.
And it is that story that griggered the title of letting go. And it starts with forgiveness. How do you let go? You've got to forgive. You've got to forgive others.
You've got to forgive yourself.
This can be the most difficult thing when it comes to possibility of living a life where you're able to rise 365.
Forgiveness is different from reconciliation. People think that we have to reconcile a relationship or the wrong in our life in order to give forgiveness, in order to be completely set free.
But as a person who has been stuck in a life of not forgiving those in my past who have harmed me and betrayed me to my core, it puts a stronghold on our life.
And then you take that and you look at your own life and there's failures and mistakes you made. And if you're not forgiving yourself for these situations, then you are just hindering your ability to see your life as God has meant it to be.
You're missing out on the opportunity to rise each new day that you're given because we are stuck just like this snake fighting against something that we're meant to let go.
Ephesians 4.31-32 says, Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you with all malice and be kind to one another,
hinderharding, forgiving one another just as God in Christ has forgiven you. So this is your first episode of Rising 365. I'm a Christian, a person who follows after Jesus and I believe in the scriptures and what they say.
You know, if we just looked at Jesus, the historical man, we don't put his deity on the line. If we see the betrayal, the hardships that he faced, all the wrong he was trying to do that was put upon him.
When you open the scriptures or you go back, you can even go to non-Christian historical writers on the man of Jesus Christ of Nazarene.
You see, all he was trying to do was help people, be kind to people, love people.
For some reason, the world wasn't ready for that.
So instead, the world betrayed him.
And he had all right to maybe live a life of bitterness and unforgiveness.
But he didn't.
Even his last breath on the cross was, Father forgive them for they know not what they do.
You know, there are many lost days to not letting go of the past.
If we don't let go of our past, the future is tainted. The future seems dark. There seems to be no future.
Rising seems to be impossible.
Maybe today is the day you let go.
That you forgive.
Forgive others and you forgive yourself. You find that freedom. It's like, you know what?
What happened has happened.
I will no longer allow it to affect this day that I'm given in the days to come.
Maybe you need some help to see that, to take tangible steps to forgiveness.
I don't believe it has to be very hard. It could be right where you're sitting in your car, in the gym with your earbuds in, wherever you're listening to this episode.
What do you just say in your heart?
I forgive such and such. I forgive myself. I'm letting go.
And just like that, forgiveness has been granted.
It doesn't have to be a big extravagant thing.
Maybe you need to do that.
You don't need to have a conversation with a person in order to grant forgiveness.
You can grant it right where you're at. You can let go right where you're at of all bitterness, of all slander, of all anger.
That's currently in your life.
You just release it.
You know, the hardest thing to do sometimes, I'm a big fan of fitness, and one of the hardest things to do is when you're holding a heavy load.
Maybe if you've been a farmer's carried, you know, you're holding too substantial amount of weight in both hands.
The idea is to walk as far as you can carrying this load.
The idea of this is to build your grip strength, your endurance, your whole core, your whole body.
But eventually, the weight of holding on becomes a burden and you got to let it go.
And it's such a relief once you let it go.
I hope you feel that relief today in this episode.
You feel encouraged.
You know, there's great resources out there to help you.
I've been promoting better health than online counseling service.
You'll find that link in the show notes.
I hope you talk through whatever you're facing, whatever you're holding on that is causing you to lose out on the gift of the new day that you're given.
You've lost enough days.
May today and every day after be new for you.
May you let go.
May you stop fighting.
May you stop carrying the load.
No.
I just want to encourage others that there is freedom found out there.
And may you find it.
Thank you for tuning in.
I hope each episode brings you inspiration to embrace every new day to support this podcast.
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Until we meet again. I'm Mike Pina reminding you to rise and seize the gift of a new day.
You are destined for this moment.