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Don’t Let Your Life Stagnate
Jn. 5:1-9
Charles Swindoll shares this story in an issue of Leadership magazine: In 1965 the Viet Nam War began to stagnate and bog down. Another story caught the attention of the world “On June 1, 1965, a thirteen-and-a half-foot boat (only a few feet longer than a surfboard) quietly slipped out of the marina at Falmouth, Massachusetts for Falmouth, England. It would be the smallest craft ever to make the voyage. Its name? Tinkerbelle. It’s pilot? Robert Manry 47, a copy editor for the Cleveland’s "The Plain Dealer" Ohio’s largest daily newspaper, who felt ten years at the desk was enough boredom for a while, so he took a leave of absence to fulfill his secret dream which he had held for 30 years,
“Manry was afraid, not of the ocean, but of all those people who would try to talk him out of the trip. So he didn’t share it with many, just some relatives and especially his wife, Virginia. She was his greatest source of support.
“The trip? Anything but pleasant. He spent sleepless nights trying to cross shipping lanes without getting run down and sunk. Manry on his second night is becalmed, dead in the water, in a dense fog, in the middle of busy Atlantic shipping lanes. He sits, terrified, as potentially deadly cargo ships pass on either side. Weeks at sea caused his food to become tasteless.
Manry has good days and bad. He battles storms and enjoys the sun. Tinkerbelle has sat for hours at a time, "becalmed." On his best day, he sails 87 miles
By the time he is three-quarters across the ocean he has been swept overboard six times, saved only by a lifeline. He almost collides with a sleeping shark, he breaks two rudders and, during the first storm, he loses radar equipment. For a short time on the last leg of the journey, he is reported lost.
He left U.S. shores with no fanfare. He expects nothing more when he arrives. He has $700 to transport himself and his boat back to the States.
Manry is 40 pounds underweight but in good spirits. His calculations were impressively accurate. He arrives seventy-eight days in Falmouth, England two days after his August 15 prediction and with plenty of food and water to spare.
“During those nights at the tiller, he had fantasized about what he would do once he arrived. He expected simply to check into a hotel, eat dinner alone, then the next morning see if, perhaps, the Associated Press might be interested in his story. Was he in for a surprise!
“Word of his approach had spread far and wide. To his amazement, thee hundred vessels, with horns blasting, escorted Tinkerbelle into port. Fifty thousand people stood screaming and cheering him to shore. Robert Manry, copy editor turned dream, became an overnight hero.
“His story has been told around the world. But Robert couldn’t have done it alone. Standing on the dock was an even greater hero: Virginia. Refusing to be rigid when Robert’s dream was taking shape, she allowed him freedom to pursue his dream”
Robert Manry died of a heart attack in 1971 at the age of 52.
— Part of this was in an issue of Leadership magazine: Charles Swindoll
– Movie – 1966 “Stop the World I Want to Get Off”
Songs: "What Kind of Fool Am I?" "Gonna Climb A Mountain," "Once in a Lifetime,"
Line in movie
I want my life back. What life I want back exactly is not clear to me yet, but a life where I don’t have to constantly wish for my life back.
— I just want to live mindlessly from day to day.
- Stagnate - exist in a changeless situation - stand still, decay, decline, fester, choke
- Atrophy is the partial or complete wasting away of a part of the body. Causes of atrophy include poor nourishment, poor circulation, or loss of muscle tissue resulting from disease .
A Stagnated Life Jn 5
v.1 - FEAST - Holiday - Celebration
v. 2 - SHEEP MARKET - Place to trade
- BETHESDA - House of Mercy, Place of mercy
v. 3 - IMPOTANT - Weak Sick
BLIND, - HALT, Lame - WITHERED Paralyzed
v. 4 - Modern translations leave this verse out
Our own words - Look for a Sign - Miracle - Lottery
Never going to happen
v. 5 WHICH HAD AN INFIRMITY
- Does not identify has sickness - His stagnation
- Can be any of us
- Never too late to change
- Man Stagnated for 38 years
- Almost as long as Israel in the Wilderness
v. 6 - JESUS SAW - JESUS KNEW
- We are never outside of Grace
WILT THOU BE MADE WHOLE?
- To restore completely inside & out
v. 7 - I HAVE NO MAN
- Excuse - Blame - My Reasons
v. 8 - RISE, TAKE UP THY BED, AND WALK
- It is not according to our abilities or strength
- It is according to His authority
v. 9 - IMMEDIATELY THE MAN WAS MADE WHOLE
Based on what you believe
Who are you going to trust
"If you wait for perfect conditions, you’ll never get anything done." (Ecclesiastes 11:4, LB)
Stagnation is dangerous.
- Leonardo da Vinci
Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation ... even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind
Moving From Stagnation To Stimulation
There are three common motivators:
PAIN: Often it’s not "seeing the light" that gets us going, but "feeling the heat.” You delay the dentist appointment until the pain is unbearable.
PRESSURE: When the doctor says "Lose 50 pounds or die," or the boss says "Improve performance or be fired," that pressure will motivate you to make a change. The problem with pressure as a motivator is that it doesn’t last. When the pressure subsides, so does your motivation. There is a better motivator.
PERSPECTIVE: When you see the big picture, or when you’re inspired by a challenging vision or purpose, you’ve found the best motivator of all – perspective. You realize that you’re wasting your potential.
The Bible says, "If you wait for perfect conditions, you’ll never get anything done." (Ecclesiastes 11:4, LB)
Four Ways To Stop Life’s Stagnation
1. ACCEPT responsibility for your own life. Refuse to be either an excuser (rationalize failure) or an accuser (blame others). Instead, be a chooser, and choose to break out of the rut you’re in.
2. ANALYZE - What do you really want. Write down specifically how you’d like to change.
3. AFFIRM - Stop saying "I can’t" and start saying "I can."
Believe you can change!
4. ACT - Don’t wait for ideal circumstances. Stop saying "When things settle down ....” Do it now! "One of these days" is really none of these days.
PRAY THIS: "God help me to do something differently this week and to do it better. Give me your strength to change."
