#15 - Be Like the Dead {Reflections}

What is up everybody?

My name is Ryan Brailey, I am the pastor at Central and this is Reflections, and we're at episode 11, I think.

So welcome to episode 11.

I want to call this one something like be like the dead.

There was a story I heard where this young man goes to a holy man and he asks the holy man hey, listen, I want to be a holy man just like you.

What should I do?

And the holy man sort of rubs his beard and says here's what you do tonight go to the cemetery and praise the dead.

Take the entire night and just praise them.

Tell them how wonderful they are, tell them how everything they do is just gold and how the world would not be the same without them, how lovely things are when they're around.

Just praise the dead.

And the young man stares at him, you know, incredulous.

But it's like okay, fine, I'll do that.

He's a young guy who wants to be a holy man.

I'm gonna do it.

So that night the young boy goes to the cemetery and he does it for like eight straight hours.

He praises the dead.

Next morning he comes back to the holy man.

He's weary, he's tired, rubbing his eyes like I did it, and the holy man says okay, tonight go back and criticize the dead and just berate them, tell them how awful they are, tell them how they're just terrible, everything they do, how they will never be successful at anything, and just derogate them the entire night, for the entire night.

And the young boy is like you've got to be kidding me, but he wants to be a holy man.

What's he gonna do?

So he goes that night and the entire night he just berates the dead.

He just yells at them, criticizes them, complains about him, condemns them, tells him how awful they are.

And the next morning he goes back to the holy man, hoping that there's gonna be an answer for all this bizarre activity.

And he asks the holy man tells the holy man hey, I did it.

I went to the cemetery and I and I criticized the dead.

Holy man leans back in this.

You know this wisdom and he's okay.

What happened when you praise the dead?

What did they do?

And the young boy is like they didn't do anything, they just laid there, they were dead, he was okay.

Well, what happened?

When you criticize them, you can complain about them and condemn them.

The boy goes odd, they didn't do anything, they just laid there, they didn't do a thing, they didn't respond to, react in any way.

The holy man says alright, little boy, you want to be a holy man, be like the dead.

And I love that story, because feedback in life is strange, isn't it?

I mean, oftentimes, you and I, if we do anything in life, we often get, like we get, feedback constantly.

We get, we get you know, sometimes it's unsolicited, sometimes it can be an anonymous, especially in today's day and age with the internet and you know comment section and, and you can get anonymous feedback.

You can even get feedback from those that you love or trust, that are in your inner circle, and it's all kinds of feedback that has all kinds of motivations behind it.

And the question is what do you do with this feedback?

How do we handle it?

And there are two ways I've seen kind of in life where people these like sort of two extremes where people handle feedback.

One is, many people are just opened, all of it, and they let in that feedback and with the feedback whether it's good feedback or negative feedback they rise and fall.

Their day can be made or ruined by just one amount of you know, one sort of bit of feedback or you know it and so like they rise and fall based on the feedback they're getting that day and they just let all of it in.

They listen to all of it.

The other sort of extreme is that people often will barricade themselves in some sort of metaphorical you know echo chamber and not receive any feedback from anybody, and I don't care what anybody says, they turn off the comments and they don't want to receive any feedback.

But I think there's a third way.

In the third way I want to submit is to be like the dead Brandon Manning in his many of his books just suggests it as people of followers of Jesus, as Christians, how important it is for you and I to constantly, daily, even remember our identity.

And he would say, like I often say in our benediction at Central, that we are the beloved sons and Daughters of God and above everything else that happens in life, above anything else or anywhere else, your journey takes you.

Whatever feedback, criticism, good or bad you get from people, you are always the beloved child of God.

That is first and foremost, and so in that way, success or failure, these are like human-made constructs.

They're not real and they're not, they're certainly not biblical.

They're kind of like these human-made Frames for how to live life.

What's more important than our success or failure as children of God is being faithful to a God has Asked us to do.

And when you remind yourself of your own identity, like I look, I'm the beloved son of God, no matter what, what happens, then, when I receive feedback is I'm less inclined to like if it's good, I'm less inclined to kind of like be taken to the top of the mountain and just think, oh, this is something on my day has been made, I feel so good, I feel secure and safe because I got this good amount of feedback.

And likewise, if I get negative feedback or criticism, then I'm less inclined to, like you know, just fall to the depths of despair or anxiety or fear.

Because either way, whether I get positive or negative feedback, I remember that I am the beloved son of God and I want to hear that feedback.

I do, I want to, I want to receive it, but I also want to be like the dead with how I respond to it and not, you know, not get too high or too low based on the feedback of the people.

So today, my friends, wherever you are and whatever you're doing, be like the dead.

Hey, if you enjoy this show, I'd love to have you share with some friends.

And don't forget, you are always welcome to join us in person at Central in Elk River at 8 30, which is our local gathering, or at 10 o'clock, our modern gathering, or you can check us out online at clclriverorg Elk Riverorg peace.