Well, welcome back to Rising 365, a podcast committed to inspiring and supporting others
to embrace the opportunity to rise with each new day.
I'm Mike Pina and rising daily can be a challenge for many, including myself, and it is my hope
that what you hear in these episodes will assist you in rising every day of the year.
So yeah, this is two podcasts in one week because I am in the middle of performing in
a live show called a kill a mockingbird.
Earlier episode, episode 26, we started looking at the Atticus effect and this is the Atticus
effect part two.
You just got to try.
So yesterday, Thursday, October, what day is it?
October 3rd, we open a kill a mockingbird here in Cardi, Nebraska with Crane River Theater.
If you're not familiar with to kill a mockingbird, press pause, go Google to kill a mockingbird
and get familiar with it.
It's one of the books that have transcended the time of decade.
Nothing hasn't gone out of style.
Yesterday cast members and I were talking about Atticus Finch, one of the main characters,
the dad in this book, in this play who is striving to live a life that is the same in
public and work and what his kids see.
He's a widowed father to two young people.
And one of my castmates shared with me that Atticus Finch is actually rated to be the
number one hero of all time, beating superheroes.
And then another castmate even said that the person that Superman even looks up to is Atticus
Finch.
He's important, he is the way he carries himself, the way he conducts himself.
It affects him.
I remember listening to this book, even reading this book when I was young in high school
and just a few weeks ago my family and I were driving across Nebraska listening to the audiobook.
I just got to thinking to myself, how awesome would it have been to have a dad like Atticus
Finch?
My dad is not in my life, but if I had a dad I would hope and pray that he was like Atticus
Finch.
And then being a dad of two kids, I want to be like Atticus Finch.
I want to be like what we shared in episode 26.
I want to be the same person that my kids see.
I want that person to be the same.
I want them to be proud of me because I treat them with love and joy and patience and kindness.
I'm hospitable to them.
Someone they would be proud to say, hey, that's my dad.
I want that person to be the same when I'm here working in the ministry I work for, when
I'm interacting with churches and people in the public and they get to know that, hey,
Father's Mike Pena, he is a missionary and he strives to get the gospel out and live
the gospel.
I want that to be the same in every aspect of my life.
We all should want that.
We should not be trying to play different people at work with strangers and with our
family.
If you're doing that, you're going to feel yourself not being able to keep up with life
as it comes at you.
So we're striving like Atticus to be the same, be the constant in the community, the constant
in his family so people can trust on you.
But last night when we were performing, I was off the stage, stage right, just watching
the show unfold and watching Atticus.
He had a line.
Him and Scout are having a conversation towards the beginning of the play and you know, Atticus
is this lawyer who's been appointed to represent an innocent man, Tom Robinson.
But because of Tom Robinson's ethnicity, being a black guy in early 1930s, he was automatically
guilty.
He was in town despite the evidence, saw him as guilty because, solely because of his skin
color.
And Scout doesn't understand why Atticus is taking the case and she ends up asking him,
why are you doing this?
Are we even going to win?
And Atticus says, no honey, we're not going to win.
And then Scout again says, then why are you doing it?
The whole town says you shouldn't.
And he has this powerful line.
He says, honey, just because we're licked a hundred years ago doesn't mean we shouldn't
try.
And that hit me last night.
It was such an emotional line that you've got to try.
No matter what you're facing in your life, what other people are thinking about your situation,
what you're doing in order to do what this podcast is setting out to do.
And that's help people rise.
You've got to try.
So what else is there to do?
If you don't try, you're stuck in the same spot.
You're stuck in your house, in your bed, in your same situation.
Cause you're afraid to try.
I think why people are afraid to try, especially here in 2024 is because we have the virus
of social media in YouTube and platforms where when you go on there, everybody is already
perfect at things.
Nobody captures the struggle it took them to get good at what they're demonstrating
and sharing on social media and on YouTube.
We're showing you them at their best already after spending years and hours of trying to
get to that point.
But because we are seeing the results of hard work of people willing to try, we'll set out
to try and give it an hour, half hour.
And if we're not good instantaneously and we're not good as the people we've seen and
been watching instantly because of our instant gratification of our world, we don't even
want to try anymore.
So many kids like I've shared, we are in the lane of interacting with kids from elementary
age kids.
And we have an avenue of our ministry where we're with teenagers.
And then I'm giving the avenue of even interacting with adults.
And people are so stuck because they're afraid to try something new.
They're afraid what people will think about them, but they don't even do it.
But like Atticus says, that's not a good enough reason.
You're going to be stagnant and stale in your position and nothing will change and all you're
going to have before you is something to complain about because you didn't try.
So Atticus sets out to defend this guy, Tom Robinson, despite knowing the likelihood
of him winning is very small, but he's going to try and he's going to give it his best.
And when you try, you can't give it a half-hearted attempt.
You've got to go all in when you try.
You've got to be patient with yourself.
Who cares if it doesn't make sense to other people?
It makes sense to you.
What you're trying, you know, will lead to something new for you.
If you just persevere.
And this isn't a self-will, self-discipline type situation.
It's knowing that I've got a chance to get a little bit better, a little bit stronger,
a little bit freer from what's holding me back if I only try.
And again, I like to give biblical references of it is biblical to try.
Romans 828 said, God will work all things out for good.
That verse continues by saying he will work things, all things out for his good when it's
aligned with his will.
So of course, I'm not encouraging you to go out and try something that's negative for
you.
I'm not saying go try the next drug or alcoholic beverage or whatever, a new relationship.
I'm talking about things that are good for you.
We know what those are is we don't have to unpack them.
Because that verse is very important.
A lot of people will stop at that verse, Romans 828, and says, God will work out all things
for good.
They stopped there.
So they go out and do whatever they want to do saying, God's going to work this out for
good because I want it selfishly.
But that verse doesn't stop there.
It continues to say, he will work things all out for his good according to his will.
He'll never go against his will.
He'll never go against his goodness.
So if you're trying something that is blatantly negative, don't be naive enough to think that
he's going to make that work out for good.
There's more Bible references, Galatians 6, 9.
It says, keep going in your faith.
You've got to keep trying.
Keep putting it to the test.
Each new day you're given, that's an opportunity God is giving to you so that you can try new
things to experience God's goodness, to share the gospel, to see him sanctifying you to
strengthen you.
And then another biblical reference is 2 Chronicles 15, 7.
Your efforts don't go unnoticed.
If you're a parent here listening to this, and you've got kids, don't you want your kids
to see you trying new things, just not settling for what's normal?
When you're out there doing your best and you're trying, you know, if you've never fixed
a car, you're trying to fix a car.
If you've never built something out of wood, you're trying your hand at carpentry or you're
putting the effort forth to try something new, a new sport, even new food.
You know, if you're a parent saying there, hey, you need to eat this, but then you have
a whole litany of lists of food you won't eat, but you're telling your kid you need
to try it, it's good for you.
They see you not trying new things, they're not going to do it.
And that's the example we want to set.
Whether people are noticing what you're doing or not doing.
If they see that you're in a situation that is making rising daily difficult, but they
see you never taking the chance, they see you never opening the curtains to your room,
they see you're not taking care of yourself.
Healthy wise, you're not being active, you're eating unhealthy, you're not doing simple
things as keeping your hygiene up.
And they're going to think, does he really want to get better?
And when people see you trying, they're going to come alongside you and they're going to
notice that and they're going to encourage you.
They're going to check in on you.
They're going to say, how was your walk yesterday?
I saw you out walking and it's been a while.
Did you enjoy your walk or see you trying?
What can I do to help you?
And then people seeing you try is going to encourage them to try.
It's a wonderful and pages thing when people see other people trying new things, they get
excited.
You know, if you just think about, you know, the track event of the one mile race, I remember
back people thought you can only run a mile at a certain amount of speed, like seven minutes
was it was the fastest anyone would be able to make it.
And he people was like, well, you know, that guy's better than me and he could only go
make a mile in seven minutes.
And people say, I wonder if I could run it faster.
And then people were running it in six minutes and five minutes and four minutes.
And I've read lately, there's people like running miles and two minutes and some seconds.
It's because they're not afraid to try.
You know, crying.
You never know what the result with will be when you try.
So that's where we're at today.
When was the last time you tried?
When was the last what was the last thing you tried?
How long has it been?
Maybe it's time for you to get up and try.
You may surprise yourself what you're capable of.
You may see yourself getting stronger.
And I just did some fact checking right now.
The fastest mile ran is three minutes, 43 seconds.
And like I shared before, they never thought a six minute mile would ever be broken.
But because someone believed that they could do it and they're willing to try and then
they got coaches and people there encouraging them.
Three minutes, 43 seconds.
They said people were are encouraged by people willing to try.
One of my favorite other stories is the fastest marathon ran.
This happened in 2018 by Kenyon Eliud Pipchang.
It's a cool video to watch him run this marathon.
You know, over 26 miles.
He runs it in two hours, one minute and 39 seconds.
But the beautiful thing about this run is he doesn't run it alone.
He has pacers alongside him every step of the way.
Helping him, encouraging him because he has the mindset to say I'm willing to try to run
the fastest marathon.
And people got behind him and pushed him to this fastest time.
And again, when people see you try, they're going to be there to help you.
You may not succeed.
Like Atticus, he didn't win the trial, but he was willing to try.
And the result with that, Miss Mottie, towards the conclusion of the show of that situation,
he was like, he was appointed to take that case.
And only Atticus Finch could keep a jury out that long.
Because during a time when racial codes determined what was right and wrong, he got the jury
to question that.
Even though it still resulted in him not winning the case.
Atticus Finch was willing to try.
That's my encouragement to you, the listener, in this episode 27, the Atticus Effect, part
two.
You just got to try.
Thank you for tuning in.
I hope each episode brings you inspiration to embrace every new day.
To support this podcast, consider booking me as a speaker for your next conference,
school assembly, youth event, Bible study, or any special occasion where I can share
a message of Rising 365.
To arrange this, simply send me a message or email at rising247365 at gmail.com.
Additionally, you can support by liking, sharing, and rating the podcast on your preferred
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Until we meet again, I'm Mike Pena, reminding you to rise and seize the gift of a new day.
You are destined for this moment.