Davis Unconquered

10 Principles to Overcome Adversity and Live above Defeat
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-1-4245-6533-7
Verlag: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 192 Seiten

Face your pain. Live unconquered. Trauma is notorious for trapping people in the pain of their past. When you live in defeat, it can be difficult to embrace the hope and victory available in Christ. Former law enforcement officer Adam Davis knows what it's like to feel defeated. In Unconquered, Davis bravely shares his personal experiences with abuse, failure, and mental health battles and the biblical truths that empowered him to choose faith over fear, truth over lies, and action over defeat. Structured around ten practical principles, Unconquered will help you - surrender to God for healing and forgiveness, - develop healthy habits to renew your mindset, relationships, and behaviors, - discover untapped strength and uncommon resolve, and - transform into a more resilient version of yourself. Allow God to use your past to draw you near and reclaim the abundant life he designed for you.   

ADAM DAVIS is a former police officer as well as a husband, father, small business owner, speaker, and writer. He is the author of Amazon best-seller Spirit & Truth: 52 Encouraging Messages for America's Law Enforcement and a contributor for Entrepreneur Magazine and The Huffington Post and was featured on FoxNews.com and The Blaze Radio Network. Adam and his wife, Amber, reside in southeast Alabama with their three children and two dogs.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Davis, Adam

Leseproben

INTRODUCTION

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE THE BATTLE

“Which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?”

LUKE 14:28 ESV

Nearly three years after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, American victories in the Southwest and Central Pacific took the fight within close proximity of Japan in the Battle of Peleliu, which was codenamed Operation Stalemate. American bombers were within striking distance of the Japanese main islands from bases secured during a campaign known as the Mariana Islands campaign from June to August 1944. According to Major General William Rupertus, the commander of the First Marine Division, the battle was only supposed to last four days; however, the campaign to occupy the airstrip on Peleliu lasted nearly three months.

The United States emerged victoriously, but it came at a high cost. According to the Marine Corps University website, there were over six thousand casualties.1 This island was crucial for the United States to take because of its proximity between the United States and Japan, and it ended up being one of the bloodiest battles in World War II. Since 2009, civilians and military members have discovered over thirty-two thousand munitions on Peleliu.2 While the government has attempted to discharge these bombs to make the island safer, undetonated explosives remain, and now, many decades after this Pacific paradise was a war zone, tourists must adhere to warning signs and designated walkways because of the number of undetonated explosives.

When I think about the stories from the Battle of Peleliu, I’m reminded of how our past can affect every aspect of our lives. And in its allegorical form, it’s an accurate representation of the way many feel defeated by past life experiences. Our past has the potential to be devastating to our present and future and can shape our perspective on life. We’ve all been like that Pacific island, a place where American forces fought heavy battles, and all that we recall are the charred remains and undetonated bombs, waiting for the moment they detonate and take out innocent relationships and sabotage good opportunities.

I don’t know what you’ve battled or what caused you the most pain in life, but I know you’re not alone in the fight. It’s not my intention to come across as shortsighted here nor as insensitive, but the reality is that many of us have endured abuse, tragedy, and deep soul pain. It could have resulted from your job in service to your country and the things you have witnessed or had to do in the course of your duty. Or it could have come at the hands of a family member, friend, or neighbor in the form of sexual abuse or physical abuse as a child. But as American military leaders and first responders do after any training or operation, we should look at our lives and determine what lessons we can learn from the pain we’ve experienced.

Through the lessons my experiences have taught me, one thing I’ve taken away is the opportunity to learn from the pain. I have learned how to become a better version of myself, a stronger, more resilient version. Experiences teach us to expect pain, to endure, to embrace trials and suffering—not because we’re strange but because we know there will be some good to come from it all. The addiction to comfort is killing our ability to reach our maximum potential. The addiction to ease and comfort creates weak societies.

We’re a different generation than the breed of warriors who fought for our nation in World War II. When I think about the men who fought for America then, I think about a portion of Eugene Sledge’s memoir entitled In this acclaimed first-person account of the Battle of Peleliu, Sledge writes,

It was hard to sleep that night [before the invasion]. I thought of home, my parents, my friends—and whether I would do my duty, be wounded and disabled, or be killed. I concluded that it was impossible for me to be killed, because God loved me. Then I told myself that God loved us all and that many would die or be ruined physically or mentally or both by the next morning and in the days following. My heart pounded, and I broke out in a cold sweat. Finally, I called myself a…coward and eventually fell asleep saying the Lord’s Prayer to myself.”3

Mr. Sledge provides an incredible perspective of someone facing what we could easily describe as a nightmare we could fathom what he saw the next day and felt that night. Imagine knowing you were walking into a death trap tomorrow, and you still went. You trusted in God, and through him, you found your strength, your peace, and your blessed assurance. What assurance—that neither death nor life can separate us from the love of God! When we are in the throes of sorrow, his love may seem to be an eternity away, but that assurance and his promises are comforting and give us strength for the fight.

Identify the Undetonated Explosives in Your Life

As you read this, the memories of life’s battles may still be freshly lingering in your mind. The embers may still be redhot from the fires that roared through your life. Right now, you may be experiencing soul-wrenching pain; it feels like your throat is being squeezed, and you can’t breathe. Anxiety is a real thing. Panic attacks. I get it. You’re still in the fight.

During my training phase in the police academy, we were taught how to handle a number of different potential dangers we might face on duty. Our instructors would bring up things like high-risk traffic stops, felony warrants, high-speed pursuits, foot pursuits, shoot-outs, and ground fighting. The reality is that you can spend your entire life training and preparing, and the only battle you get into is the one you didn’t train to fight. There are going to be situations in which you are victorious only because of God. Otherwise, they are no-win situations.

I want to point out some clear strategies the enemy will use, some areas where our armor may have a vulnerability, how we can best prepare for what lies ahead, and how to best overcome what is behind us. It’s important to identify the areas where the enemy may attack you before the campaign against you is advanced. Think about each of these areas and see if any apply to you.

1.Ignoring the Pain: Do you pretend it didn’t happen? Ignoring the pain leads to a chain reaction of additional battles that you could avoid. Ignoring is not the answer, but addressing these wounds will lead to healing.

2.Refusing to Surrender: Do you try to control others or manipulate circumstances? When you try to heal through your own power, you’re not surrendering as God intends. There’s no such thing as controlling your surrender to God. It must be 100 percent, open hands, open hearts. We cannot control others, nor can we orchestrate or manipulate the circumstances of life in our favor. Relinquish control to the one who created life itself, be committed to taking the actions you are responsible for taking to find healing and freedom, and don’t worry about what others do or say.

3.Living in the Past: If you are still celebrating a victory from ten years ago but not facing the battles that left you wounded, you have been deceived. There’s a difference between living in the past and learning from it. Living in it keeps you from growing, maturing, and advancing. Learning from it makes you a mature, strong, and capable warrior who will overcome any battle that comes your way.

4.Refusing to Forgive: Maybe it makes you feel like you still retain some degree of wholeness, but it is not helping you at all. It’s a lie from the enemy and one of the most sensitive of undetonated bombs in your life. Forgiving the offender sets you free.

5.Emotions Gone Wild: It may feel like you’re the only one who has an emotional roller-coaster ride in life, but we need only look to the Old Testament to see how common this really is. David was an emotional wreck in the book of Psalms. But we must take captive our thoughts and emotions and align them with the truth of God’s Word.

6.Doing Things Your Way: This makes for good song lyrics but not a good life. Being in total control of everything is exhausting and overrated.

7.Toxic Relationships: There are some folks you need to distance yourself from. You know who they are, and unless there is abuse present, I am not referring to your marriage.

8.The Lost Wanderer: All your time and energy are expended fighting to find your way. You lack direction, aren’t clear on your purpose, and even wonder if it is all worth it. Pain can cause you to lose focus of your true north and divine purpose and throw you into a pit of confusion.

9.The Know-It-All: Your brain is stale, your heart is hard, and you’ve grown complacent. You’re a statistic waiting to happen in every area of your life. It’s time to get back to the warrior you were before the pain and before the pressure of life had an impact on you.

10.You Quit Before You Start: Quitting, like winning, begins in the mind; every time life gets hard, you want to quit. That changes here and now. Remove from your vocabulary and prepare to live on a different level of winning.

Those are ten notes I...