Comeback & Beyond by Tim Storey Harrison House Tulsa, OK Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®. niv®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked msg are taken from The Message New Testament With Psalms and Proverbs by Eugene H. Peterson. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995 by Eugene H. Peterson. NavPress, P. O. Box 35001, Colorado Springs, CO 80935. Scripture quotations marked nlt are taken from the New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. Scripture quotations marked nkjv are taken from The New King James Version of the Bible. Copyright© 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Publishers. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked kjv are taken from The King James Version of the Bible. Comeback…& Beyond ISBN 978-1-60683-118-2 Copyright © 2010 by Tim Storey 499 N. Canon Dr., Suite 400 Beverly Hills, California 90210 Published by Harrison House, Inc. P. O. Box 35035 Tulsa, Oklahoma 74153 Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. Contents and/or cover may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without the express written consent of the Publisher. Introduction Unfortunately, most people don’t know that even in their darkest hours and worst failures, God is there, rooting for them and wanting to help them. Because they either forget this or never knew this, in the midst of a setback they feel like a failure and take another step back. Then another setback comes, and they take another step back. Before long they find themselves so far from where they want to be, they just give up. They can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, and they are overcome by the darkness. Life is doing something with them instead of them doing something with life. If you are saying to yourself, “I’ve stepped back so far I don’t even remember where I started,” just remember: It’s not how you start something that counts, it’s how you finish it. Even while you are feeling the sting of your setback, your comeback has already been prepared for you. You just have to begin to think about yourself and your situation in a different light. You may be weary and don’t know if you have the energy to begin again, but this may be the humble launching pad your life has been waiting for. It’s too soon to give up because God hasn’t given up on you. In fact, He never gives up on you. I haven’t given up on you. You are the only one who can give up and abort your destiny! There is always time for one more comeback. How do I know this with absolute certainty? I have lived it and am continuing to live it. I have shared it with others who are living it successfully. In these chapters are the powerful truths and life-changing principles that have brought me through pain and desperation in my own life. They are what sustain me and help me to continue to move forward today. Don’t put this book down until you make a commitment to set aside a specific time and place to finish reading it. Whether it is five minutes a day or an hour a day—just do it! Read it again and again until you plant these ideas in the depths of your heart. Your comeback—and much more beyond it—are waiting for you! Chapter 1: The Inner Cry for More Maybe you are in the pit of despair. I want you to consider something. Maybe you have never thought of this, or maybe you think about this all the time. The reason you might be in despair is because you may be dissatisfied with your life. You might be surprised to know that God created you to be dissatisfied when things are not going well—and sometimes when things are going very well. When you get off the yellow brick road and get lost or become entangled with those creepy, talking trees, it’s the normal, human thing to despair and become frustrated. You know you are not where you are supposed to be, doing what you are supposed to be doing—or being who you really are. This despair and frustration can also well up in you when everything is going fine. That is because you were created to grow and move and change yourself and everything around you for the better. If you are like me, there are times you have no idea who you really are and what you are supposed to be doing. That is the inner cry for more! It is something God put in us so that we would reach beyond ourselves, look to Him for answers, and become better and greater. He made us, so He understands our purpose and knows all the inner workings of our hearts. He knows our every thought. Nothing gets past Him. He is the original and only Know-It-All! He can hear you say, “Is there more to life than what I’m living?” and is pleased that you are experiencing divine dissatisfaction. You are shaking yourself out of complacency, out of your comfort zone, and out of any failure mentality. Don’t ignore what you are feeling! That inner cry for more is simply “who you really are” making a demand on “who you have become.” It is God calling you to grow up into who He created you to be and what He created you to accomplish in your life. Momentum Momentum expresses your inner cry for more. It moves you forward to succeed and to be happy in life. The online Merriam- Webster dictionary says that momentum means “strength or force gained by motion or through the development of events.”1 We are talking about a rhythm, a pace, a stride that gains strength and force as we move forward and things happen in our lives. Do you ever notice how much energy little kids have? Seriously, it is like they have had an IV of sugar injected into them in the middle of the night, so by the time they wake up they are raring to go! They are full of life and excited about what the new day will bring. They chase the ice cream truck, fly kites, climb trees, and splash in mud puddles. Their life is about momentum. Kids know how to have a good time. Most of the time they are happy and run around without a care in the world. They don’t stress because they know their needs will be met. On the other hand, adults can be all over the place. One minute we are up and going, and the next minute we are down and out; one minute we are happy about life, and the next minute we are discouraged. We get down and out and discouraged when setbacks cause a break in our stride, our pace, our momentum. My goal is to help you get your momentum back if you’ve lost it and sustain it if you already are experiencing it. Your life isn’t meant to be a series of disappointments, nor is it intended to be ordinary and stuck in a rut. However, stuff happens! You are not perfect, and thank God, He knows that. He has an extraordinary plan to bring you through the rough spots so you can keep your momentum. Getting Your Bounce Back Since your inner cry for more is expressed in momentum, what happens when you experience a setback? Momentum ceases or slows down. Sometimes it feels like the wind has been knocked out of you, and you slump over. So what can you do? You bounce back! I read about this in Psalm 92:12 in the Bible. It says that when you trust God’s plan for your life, you will not lose momentum completely. When the setback occurs and divine dissatisfaction rises up in you, you can continue to flourish like a palm tree and bear fruit even when you are old. The word “flourish” paints a picture of being in your prime, thriving, and having a bounce in your step. A good ball has a lot of bounce. When I was growing up I used to play a lot of basketball, and one of the worst feelings was having a ball that was a little flat. It was harder to dribble, it was like passing dead weight, and it was horrible to shoot. A good ball with bounce makes the game of basketball easier and a lot more fun. The same is true in your life. When you have a lot of bounce and are flourishing, things go more smoothly and are a lot more fun. When you feel a little flat due to a setback, taking the next step feels like trying to shoot a dead basketball. God compares us to palm trees because they bounce back. Palm trees are known for being strong and flexible. They are generally located on seacoasts, and they were designed to endure hurricanes. When 150-mile- an-hour winds blow, a palm bends. When the storm is over, it just bounces back up. God wrote that you are like a palm tree when He is your refuge. Trials or tribulations may bend you over for a while, but you always bounce back.