Step Up & Shake It Off

Step Up and Shake it Off!
by Don Vess

There was a farmer who owned an old mule. The mule fell into the farmer’s well one day. The farmer heard the mule braying, so he rushed over to see what had happened. After he carefully assessed the situation, the farmer decided that neither the mule, nor the well was worth the trouble of saving. Instead, he called his neighbors together, told them what happened, and enlisted them to help him haul dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery.

At first the mule was hysterical! However, the farmer and his neighbors continued to shovel, and as dirt hit the mule’s back…a thought struck him. It suddenly dawned on him, that every time a shovel of dirt landed on his back, he could shake it off and step up. So that’s exactly what he did, blow after blow. “Shake it off and step up…shake it off and step up…shake it off and step up,” he repeated to encourage himself.

It wasn’t long before the old mule, battered, dirty, and exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the wall of the well. What seemed like it would bury him, actually blessed him, all because of the manner in which he handled adversity. How do you handle adversity? We are all going to have to experience it. Sure, we have a great crowd of witnesses (Heb. 12:1) cheering us on, but we also have a real “adversary”.

1 Peter 5:6-11 NASB- Humble yourselves, therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you. 8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, (the one causing adversity) the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 But resist him,  standing firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

Satan is not going to stop “throwing dirt on your back”. He won’t stop exploiting your weaknesses in an attempt to bury you. But you can handle any adversity that comes your way by “Stepping up and shaking it off.”

Paul had a vision from God where he saw a man from the province of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” Acts 16:9-10 And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. So they immediately set sail and landed in the port city of Philippi. There they met a woman who was a seller of purple fabric, ironically her name was Lydia. (Like our Lydia who loves the color purple). She was a strong believer and invited Paul and Silas to stay at her house, which they did. As they were going to a place to pray, a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination (python spirit) met them. She brought her masters lots of money by telling fortunes. She started following Paul, Silas, and company around, yelling out, “These men are bondservants of the Most-High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation. And she wouldn’t stop, until Paul got annoyed and turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!”

This didn’t make her masters very happy because Paul had ruined caused their “cash cow” to dry up, they dug up “dirt” to throw on them and incited a riot against them and had them beaten and thrown into the dungeon of the jail where they were placed in stocks and under armed guard. But they let the dirt that was thrown at them roll off their backs and stepped up. They began to pray, sing hymns and worship, stepping up in a big way, while all the other prisoners listened to them. About midnight (Ever notice that it seems God always shows up around midnight! Just when you are feeling like throwing in the towel, God says, “shake it off and step up”. All of a sudden there was a great earthquake that shook the foundations of the house, and all the cell doors were opened, and everyone’s chains fell off.

And when the jailer realized what was happening drew his sword to kill himself because he thought all the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out, “do yourself no harm, for we are all here!” The jailer asked Paul, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and all your household.” Paul’s bad situation resulted in the deliverance of he and Silas, all the other prisoners, and
the jailer and his whole family. When Paul and Silas’ enemies threw dirt on their backs, they “shook it off and stepped up!”

We can allow the “dirt” that life or our enemies throw at us to become either poison or seasoning. It can kill us or make us more seasoned and “salty” as believers. When we someone assaults our character without cause, or injures us in some way, we can become bitter and carry a grudge against them or we can forgive and choose to bless them.

“To carry a grudge is like being stung by the same bee over and over again.” -William H. Walton

If we can live life free from offense and accept the challenges that come our way as an opportunity for God to show His faithfulness, then we can become better and not bitter. I would call Acts ch 27 and 28 a “dirty time” in Paul’s life. Paul had been unjustly beaten as a Roman citizen and had appealed his case to Caesar. This led to him having to be transported to Rome to stand trial. On the way it got rough! The ship he was traveling
on encountered a horrible storm. It lasted for days! Acts 27:20 Since neither sun or stars appeared for many days, and no small storm was assailing us, from then on, all hope of our being saved was gradually abandoned.

Have you been in a situation that seemed to drag on and on to the point that you feel like there is just no hope? The great apostle Paul faced that dilemma too. Paul was in a situation not of his choosing. He had warned the captain of the ship not to set sail because it was not a good time of the year to sail because it was the stormy season. But there was a break in the weather and the captain had made the choice to sail anyway.

They hadn’t sailed very far when they encountered this horrible storm. Again, it was like “dirt on Paul and Silas’ back”. What did they do? “They shook it off and stepped up.” This time the step was a bit harder and more challenging. Verse 21 And when they had gone a long time without food, then Paul stood up in their midst and said, “Men, you ought to have followed my advice and not set sail from Crete, and incurred this damage and loss. 22 And yet now I urge you to keep up your courage, for there shall be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. 23 For this very night an angel of the God to WHOM I BELONG and WHOM I SERVE stood before me, 24 saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar; and behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.” 25 Therefore, KEEP UP YOUR COURAGE, men for I BELIEVE GOD, that will turn out exactly as I have been told.” It would have been nice if the story would have been, “God has promised to deliver both all of us and the ship and cargo safely to shore.” But it didn’t end that way. The ship ran aground, broke apart, and everyone was thrown into the sea. BUT GOD delivered them all safely to shore on the island of Malta where the natives showed them “extraordinary kindness and built a fire to so they could all get warm. But then, the fire began to wane, and Paul went to grab an armful of wood for the fire.

As he did, a very poisonous snake latched onto his hand. For many of us that would have been the end of the story, even if we just saw the snake, let alone have it to latch onto our hand and inject its poison. Paul shook that snake off and stepped up! So instead of being poisoned, Paul shook off the snake and ended up-with that same hand—the very one the enemy tried to inject with venom—and used it to bring blessing to others by laying that hand on the father of Publius, the chief, and healing him along with many others on that island who were sick. Paul was “seasoned by grace” not poisoned by adversity!

What are some of the potential poisonings that we are exposed to today?

* Betrayal—someone you trusted, and thought was on your side turns against you.
* Disappointment—someone doesn’t do what you expected them to do and leaves you frustrated (#1 cause of offense: Unmet expectations.)
* Broken promises
* Rejection
* Disrespect
* Ingratitude—you go out of your way to help or serve someone, but your actions are not appreciated or are disregarded.
* Someone is insensitive to you or fails to recognize your basic needs.
* Criticism
* Someone lies or gossips about you.
* Someone undermines you—they work against you instead of with you.
* Your convictions and values are disregarded.
* Unrealistic expectations. For example, if we think that everything will always go our way and that everyone will always treat us nicely, we are setting ourselves up for disillusionment.

See the bigger picture: Charles Noble said, “You must always have long-range goals to keep you from becoming frustrated by short-range failures.” Instead of focusing on immediate situations, we need to consider the long-term perspective, especially the eternal ramifications of our lives.

“We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The bottom line is—We can either be buried buy the problems, situations,
circumstances, crisis moments, overwhelming challenges, etc., etc, that are thrown at us or we can “Shake it off and step up!