Bouncing Back from Setbacks

Another week has passed, listeners. I’m Wanda Thibodeaux, and you’ve tuned in to Faithful on the Clock, which is 100 percent dedicated to getting your faith and work aligned. Today is a show very dear to my heart, because it’s all about bouncing back after setbacks. Who hasn’t had a couple of those, right? And I want to take just roughly the next 10 minutes or so to give you some tools, give you some verses to stay strong no matter how crazy life gets. If you’re up for that, come on, follow me, I’m headin’ into it right now.

This show, today, I’m gonna be honest with you, I was inspired for this first because I honestly just had a really not so great week. I haven’t really been able to get much traction on a project I’m working on, I had to redo a bunch of stuff I thought was OK, which has just felt like…bleh. And then on top of that, again, being very honest, it was the anniversary of my mother passing away, and I got thinking about all of these hardships that she’d had in her life. If anybody had setbacks, oh my gosh, she did.

But bottom line, I think we talk about resilience or bouncing back from hardship a lot in the business space. And I was actually reading this amazing book by David Feldman and Lee Daniel Karvetz called Supersurvivors. And it’s all about, you know, what does it really take to bounce back and succeed after something traumatic. And the authors actually made this connection between supersurvivors and entrepreneurship, and they talked about how what gives a lot of professionals the ability to succeed is this kind of grounded sense of delusion. They have almost this almost absurd hope and confidence in themselves, but at the same time, they’re very grounded. You know, they do the homework, they figure out all the steps, and then they just keep trying as many times as it takes to eventually succeed.

Now, it that context, I want to point you to the book of Job. You might have guessed I’d go there, but we’ll got there anyway. But if you read other stories in the Bible, a lot of the setbacks, people were able to deal with them because they kept their eye on the prize. They had something to work for and were so focused on that big picture that they basically said, well, I’ll do whatever I have to do to get there. Genesis 29, where Jacob ends up having to work 14 years to marry Rachel because her dad tricks him, that’s a perfect example. Jacob, he was certainly mad he’d gotten tricked, but he was able to keep moving forward because he was so in love and so sure that Rachel was the woman he wanted. And I think that’s how a lot of us approach bouncing back even today. We talk about just recentering on what we want and not letting anybody distract us. And it’s all kind of focused on making sure that we know what our resources or our strengths and weaknesses are. We always focus on turning the failure into a learning experience in that way.

But Job, he really had nothing to look forward to. He didn’t have this concept of, oh, I want to rebuild this, or I’m gonna go into this land. So what was his big picture? His big picture was just God. That’s it. He didn’t just hop back into things and start a contingency or whatever. He just stood in that moment, and He stepped back, and He realized that he wasn’t entitled to anything.

Chapter 1:21, you know what he says? And I think this is really incredible. He says, ““I was born with nothing, and I will die with nothing. The Lord gave, and now he has taken away. May His name be praised!” So this is a guy, He really has no idea why he’s suffering, he has no idea what his life is going to be like in the future. And he’s absolutely miserable, he wants to just die. All Job has is this sense of who God is.

So Job, he’s certainly not the picture of this, you know, puffed-out-chest, nothing-can-touch-me of the confident entrepreneur or professional we usually think of bouncing back after a failure. But he knows who he is in the sense of Who created him, He knows what God can do, and He trusts in the power God has. Not his own power, but God’s power. And he leans on that to keep speaking truth the entire time. And because of that, God ends up giving Job even more than he had had before.

So the Supersurvivors book, it does kind of get across this idea that the way you view yourself, no matter what the setback is, that self-perception counts. But the thing for you as a Christian professional is that, like you can see with Job, the self-confidence you have, it’s not just your ego talking. Your self-perception is tied to God. Or at least, it should be. You can know with absolute surety that you have value, that God’s with you, and that you’re strong because He’s got your back. That does not mean that He’s gonna give you every little thing. But He’s promised He’s gonna be right there with you come what may, and I think that when you really grasp that, it can completely change the way you see what’s happening to you.

And oh, gosh, I know things can happen. What was it, a couple of weeks ago, Elon Musk, I think he had, what was it, 49 satellites he was trying to get operating in space, and this geomagnetic storm just came and wiped out something like 40 of them. We’re talking millions of dollars of investment just gone. That’s certainly a setback, you know, he’s basically back to square one. But when those kinds of things happen, I think your best option is just, you know, you don’t just throw up your hands and quit. But don’t just immediately think about how you can fix it all by yourself either, because you don’t have to do that. Think about who really has the authority, like Job did. Stop and ask Him where He wants you, because when things go wrong, it’s so, so easy to just double down because of, you know sunk costs, you know, we might not want to give up if we’ve put in a lot. But if you just realize you don’t have to steer the ship, when you’re flexible and say, “You know, God, whatever you wanna do, I’m gonna praise You,” God notices. And all of that stress that comes from feeling like YOU have to rebuild it, YOU have to do everything, He just takes that. And if you’re not stressed out, if you know He’s right there, you’re gonna be able to focus on whatever He tells you the next step is. That’s where real resiliency, that ability to bounce back, that’s where that comes from.

[6:51]

All this said, I totally understand that starting on a new path or rebuilding, there can be really tricky stuff in that. For example, if something has happened, maybe your reputation took a hit, you are gonna have to put in the effort to talk to people and rebuild that trust. Maybe now you’re out of capital and you have to go through all your fundraising again. But through all of that, God can equip you for anything that can crop up. So don’t worry about deficiencies, because God can close those gaps, OK? But I do think it is really important to be a fantastic communicator. Let people know exactly what you’re gonna do and why. Be really specific about what you need from them, be honest where your concerns still are, and just let them see everything you’ve got in your toolbox–that’s that grounded side of it all that’s gonna balance the hope so you don’t seem like you’re just, you know, like you’ve got your head in the clouds somewhere or something. People will respond to that openness and transparency, I promise you.

So let’s put a nice big bow on this, and I’ll close the episode out so you can get back out there and back at it.

Lord, so often we think of resilience as something that happens because there’s some rare quality in us. We think of it almost like a commodity we have to prepare in ourselves. But the confidence that can let us bounce back, real hope, that’s not built on us, on the self. That’s built on knowing You, on knowing that we connect to you and to the power you have. And when those satellites go poof, we lose money, maybe we get sick, whatever it is, let us praise you before anything else. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Oh, my goodness, people. It should feel so amazing to know that, when you turn off this podcast, God is right there, He’s lovin’ on you, He’s not gonna quit. For the next week, I’m gonna be talking about information overload. Why is it so important to limit the amount of data we get, and what are some easy ways to do that for yourself and your team? And to all you listeners out there, thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m just so incredibly honored to have this time with you. Join me on Patreon.com/faithfulontheclock or use the links in the show notes to visit any of our social media channels, because I’m gonna have a big announcement THIS WEEK about something new you can participate in, so go there, follow us or sign up to support the show, and until next time, be blessed.