Internally Focused, Purpose Driven, Face Adversity

In this episode, I discuss the importance of self-care and resilience from a biblical perspective. I  share my personal experience of neglecting self-care and the impact it had on my well-being. I emphasizes the need to prioritize self-care in all aspects of life, including the spiritual dimension. I explore biblical examples of resilience, such as Abraham, Joseph, Job, King David, and Jesus, highlighting their internal focus, purpose-driven mindset, and ability to face adversity. I conclude by encouraging listeners to invest in their spiritual self-care and rely on their faith to navigate life's challenges.

Takeaways

Self-care is essential for maintaining overall well-being and building resilience.
The concept of self-care is not new and has been emphasized in scripture since the beginning.

Resilience is the ability to adapt and thrive in the face of adversity, and it is rooted in an internal focus, purpose-driven mindset, and the willingness to face challenges.
Faith plays a crucial role in resilience, providing purpose, hope, and the strength to endure.

Transcript

Critical Aspects Podcast (00:01.07)

All right, welcome back to Critical Aspects of Law Enforcement. I'm your host, Vernon Phillips. And today it's just me. Though, sorry if you're looking for a guest, but today it's just me. And we're gonna kind of dive into a couple of topics that we've kind of hit on before, but we're gonna put a little twist on them this time. We're gonna talk a little bit about self-care and resilience, but we're gonna talk about this from a biblical perspective, right? So I'll talk a little bit about myself and kind of where I've been at here recently, but.

You know big thing with me, you know, so I talk about self-care. I talk about resilience I talk about making sure that you're doing things in your life that Are good, you know practical ways to offset stress, but what happens when you don't do that for yourself? Like take myself for instance So what happens when the person that teaches you or instructs you on how to practice self-care Doesn't put self-care in place themselves. Well You get burnt out

Right, you burn the candle on both ends and in the middle, but what do you do from there? So recently in the last several months, I just noticed that I just wasn't feeling 100% because for one, I just wasn't practicing good self care. I wasn't watching the amount of stuff I was taking on. I wasn't just checking myself. I wasn't taking that time to check myself and say, hey, what are you doing? How are you taking care of yourself? What are the things you're putting in place? So I kind of stopped.

You know, watching when I was eating, I'd stop moving like I should. I had just stopped paying attention. You know, a lot of it's, you know, circumstantial just with a lot of things going on in life, you mean. Um, but I kind of noticed a trend. I mean, you know, uh, trying to wrap up, you know, some school stuff and then just kind of other things taking the back seat. And so I'm part of a foundation and, uh, it's for, it's for a faithfully guided health center, uh, they're their foundation and they've got a process called the discovery process. And on the board, I'm like, you know, I'm on the board, I should probably go through this, but I don't want to go through this because I don't want to see where I'm at. Because I know that I probably wasn't doing the best that I could. So long story short, go into the discovery process and pretty much comes out and says exactly what I thought it was going to say. It says, hey, look, check it out. You are not doing well with your stress. And so I made the conscious decision to say, okay, well, what am I going to do about it? So I started implementing just various things, started making use of some of the things that they have there.

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You know, they've got infrared sauna, they've got, you know, alpha stem, you know, brain tap, they've got hyperbaric chambers, which I haven't done yet. Now they just introduced some cold plunging. You know, they've got, you know, counselors on staff. So just going in, sitting down with somebody, going in, getting in the infrared sauna, making use of some of those things that are there. You know, I'm feeling better. But why do I say this? Why do I share this? Because even the people that say, hey, look, make sure you're doing this, make sure you're taking care of yourself, are oftentimes...struggling themselves or oftentimes, you know, some of the worst at putting in things in place themselves. So when we start talking about self care, well, what is self care? So, I mean, we know that self care involves just your whole person, right? Your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. So it involves the pursuit of your physical, your mental, your emotional, and your spiritual health, especially that spiritual component. But oftentimes we leave that out. So there's this huge shift right now in the law enforcement world where we're really focused on mental health, mental health awareness, emotional health. We've always kind of been on that physical ride, hey, make sure you're taking care of yourself physically, but more often than not, we're really starting to hone in on the importance of mental health. But I feel like maybe we're starting to take a little backseat on the spiritual side of things and we're not really giving that the credit that it deserves. So when we start looking at that, you know,

Self-care is not a new idea. So self-care, when we say it's not a new idea, when we look at scripture, I mean, self-care has been set in place since the beginning, right? I mean, we can look back to Genesis and we can look and see that in Genesis chapter two, verse two, it says, and on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So from the beginning, we have this idea of self-care, right?

This idea of taking time to rest, taking time to stop, taking time to say, okay, hey, the work's done, let's take a time to just put the brakes on. But not only that, but then we also see throughout the New Testament, we see Christ, in his example, he often practiced self-care, right? So he often took time to withdraw by himself and go and meet with the Father and pray. Right, we see in Mark chapter one, verse 35, where it says, and rising very early in the morning,

Critical Aspects Podcast (04:54.434)

When it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. Right, so he took that time, he woke up early in the morning, he went to be by himself to take that time to spend to make sure he was where he needed to be. But not only that, we see in Matthew chapter 14, verse 23, it says, after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. And then in Luke 5, 16, excuse me, he says, but he would withdraw to a desolate place and pray. And then in Luke 6-12, it says, in these days he went out to the mountain to pray. And all night he continued to pray to God. So we see that self-care is not a new model. It's not something new that we just all of a sudden like, hey, we need to start practicing taking care of ourselves. When you start practicing taking the time to withdraw and to focus on ourselves. So we often miss this idea or this vital component that a lot of the stuff that's already there, it's already in scripture. It's already been set up, it's already been placed, it's already been instrumented, it's already been pushed out through the word of God. So I know some of you are like, whoa, you're getting a little bit more on the spiritual side than like, yeah, so just buckle up because we're not done.

Self care is vital to our health, to our wellbeing. It is vital to mitigate and offset just stress, daily stress, stress from work, stress from life, stress from relationships, just stress, right? Self care is being responsible to yourself, right, and your overall wellbeing. But self care also helps to build resilience in your life. So we have this idea that, okay, well,

especially from a Christian context, well, if I practice self care, then I'm being selfish. Well, no, you're not because you're not being a good steward of your body, especially if you don't take care of yourself. So you have to implement good self care. You have to take that time, right, and implement it. So what does that look like? I mean, we can go through a whole gamut of things, but, right, so that means like maintaining your faith, right? So, you know, read scripture, right? Read things that are inspirational that...

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are religious that are solid, that give you that substance and that endurance. Get involved in your religious community. Get involved with your church. Get involved in spiritual topics and things like that. Attend religious services and activities. Go to prayer meetings. Go to Bible studies. Listen to podcasts that surround, you're just taking care of yourself spiritually, investing in yourself, taking that time to invest in your relationship with God.

Right, but it also means balancing your life, right? It means looking at your schedule and scheduling in regular times to just step away and say, okay, I need this, right? Scheduling regular times to exercise, getting regular sleep, maintaining a proper nutrient rich diet, engaging in meaningful activities. Now look, I'm not gonna stand here and tell you that I do all this consistently all the time because I don't, right? It is hard to schedule things regularly. It is hard to get out there and...

Lace up the shoes and go for a run, go for a walk. It is hard to maintain vital sleep, but start somewhere, do the best you can, start working in one area and move from there. Start engaging in things that are meaningful and worthwhile to you. Start investing into yourself. Exercise, and we talk about exercise, we talk about the importance of exercise, but oftentimes we talk about it, but we don't implement it. So exercise is showing, it's showing to reduce to reduce depression, anxiety, negative mood, all while improving your cognitive functioning and your self-esteem. So why don't we do it? Why don't we get out there and walk for 10 minutes? Why don't we get out there, right, and try to do as many push-ups as we can? Just try to get our heart rate moving. Because we're not focused on ourselves. We're not, and that sounds super, you know.

Well, we're not supposed to focus on ourselves. We're supposed to focus on other people and take care of the people. Well, yeah, but you can't effectively take care of somebody else if you're not taking care of yourself. If you don't take care of yourself, how can you expect to go out and do your job, do your duties of taking care of somebody else, especially those of you who are in the first responder community, especially those of you that go out and you hump calls day after day. If you are not taking care of yourself, how can you expect yourself to be able to respond and help somebody else?

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It's important that we take care of ourselves. For those of us that help people on an emotional level, on a spiritual level, on a cognitive level, on a mental wellbeing level, how can we expect to be able to help others if we are not investing in ourselves, if we're not taking the time and practicing our own self-care, practicing our own time of going and talking with somebody, sitting down with somebody, decompressing. See, the serious thing is we talk about it, but we don't do it.

And then we hit that threshold, we hit that door, we hit that stop block and we're like, I can't do any more and you're left at this point where you're like, what am I doing? How do I move forward from here? How can I push past this? We've gotta start putting things in place, especially on the spiritual side. I'm just gonna tell you that people of faith are more resilient than people are not. It's just the way it is. So there's gotta be something to that.

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But as we kind of get back to this idea of self-care, before we jump into resilience and what that looks like, so maybe you struggle with sleep. Well, practice good sleep hygiene. What is sleep hygiene? Well, it's practicing basic things that help you to pay attention to your sleeping habits, right? So pay attention to things that hinder your sleep, right? If you drink a cup of coffee or something that's caffeinated an hour before you go to bed and you can't fall asleep, back that down, right?

Try to unplug, try to disconnect electronics, get off your phone, at least an hour before bed. If you got a TV in your bedroom, get it out. You're like, whoa, easy now. You're stepping into my bedroom. Look, there's two things, right? There's two things that the bedroom's for. Hear me out. The bedroom is for sleeping, for that rest, for that recovery, and it's for intimacy with your significant other.

That's what the bedroom's for. Other than that, get the TV out, get the PlayStation, Xbox, all that crap, get it out. Unplug, at least an hour before. Do something to calm yourself. You know what, if you're like, well, I gotta do something, then read.

Get the electronics out. Make sure it's dark. Make sure it's cool. If you need some type of noise machine, sound machine, get something like that in there, but start practicing good sleep hygiene. Set a time to go to bed. Set a time to wake up. So other things you can do, you can just start to familiarize yourself with signs of stress in your life. You can avoid things like tobacco, alcohol, obviously drugs, excessive caffeine. All right, that's...

Critical Aspects Podcast (12:33.646)

That's my problem right there. All right, little coffee.

I enjoy coffee, all right? I drink coffee all day, all day long. But it doesn't really inhibit me.

Have a personal preparedness plan, have things in place, get a regular checkup, right? Participate in training that's constantly offered. Ask for help, right? Put things, other things, like do box breathing. We've talked about box breathing, right? Practice good things, put that in place, practice good self care, right? That helps build your resilience.

Right. We already talked about, you know, the model of self-care has been established in scripture. God set self-care in place in Genesis, Chapter two. Right. When he rested, when he stepped back and. And he rested. So we got to put that in place. We got to do that. Resilience, right? Officially, resilience is defined as the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or even significant sources of threats. Right.

So that's, you want to get technical? That's what it is. But what is resiliency? Resiliency is an individual's capacity to endure, to go through things, to go through life. As we look, there's this idea that resilient people are internally directed, they're self-motivated, and they thrive in adverse conditions. So when I start thinking about that, I kind of come up with this concept of, all right, so resilient individuals, what are they? Resilient individuals are internally focused.

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They're purpose driven and they face adversity. Well, what does that have to do with your spiritual life? When we think about that, let's look at resiliency in a biblical context, right? We can look at scripture and there are several people that have demonstrated biblical resilience. Abraham, Joseph, Job, King David. You look at the New Testament, you see Paul.

You see the disciples. But of course, you see Jesus. Jesus demonstrates resilience throughout his whole ministry. And we see that his resilience, all of these individuals, their resilience were based off of those three things, right? They were internally focused, they were purpose driven, and they faced adversity. We're like, well, internally focused, that's kind of not doesn't coincide with what scripture teaches. Well, yeah, it does. Because when you're internally focused,

You're focused on your relationship with God the Father. Right, so they're internally focused. And when you're focused on your relationship with God the Father, when you are internally focused, right, then you know what your purpose is. Then you can be purpose driven. And when you're purpose driven, then you can face things in life. You can face adversity, you can face tragedy, you can face threats. Because you're internally focused, you're purpose driven.

And that gives you the ability to face adversity. So when we look at Jesus, right? Jesus was internally focused because he was focused on his relationship with God the Father. He was purpose driven because he knew what his purpose was. His purpose was to do the will of the Father, but also his purpose was the cross. His purpose was to come and to die in the place of me, of you, of all of us who are sinners, which is everybody, throw that in there, right? So he knew his purpose and that gave him the ability to withstand right, and to face adversity.

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So we see in Matthew chapter 26 verse 42 he says, my father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done. Right, so he's talking about the cross. He's talking about going to the cross. Right, he's praying that right before he's betrayed. And he's saying like, look, if it can't pass, all right, then I'll drink it. I will go, I will go to the cross. If this is the only way, this is your will, I will do it because he was internally focused, he was purpose driven, and he faced that adversity, he faced the cross, which is, my hands down, will be the greatest adversity ever. All right? But then we see in Mark 14, 42, he says, rise, let us go, let us be going, see my betrayer as a hand. So he knows that Jesus is coming to betray him, but yet he faces that adversity head on, why? Because he's eternally focused, he was purpose driven, and he faced that adversity.

So Jesus demonstrated his capacity to endure suffering and to forgive in the midst of adversity. And we see that in Luke chapter 23 verse 34, and it says, and Jesus said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Even in the midst of dying on the cross, enduring such great, horrific death and suffering and death.

He was internally focused, he was purpose driven, and he faced that adversity to the point where he said, father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Critical Aspects Podcast (17:52.61)

So we see that resiliency is not a new concept. It's not this new idea. It's not something that's out there, that's woke, that's new age. It's proven, it's tested, it's endured. And we see that in the life of Paul. Right, we see, when we look at Paul, he's another example. So Paul had been beaten, he'd been shipwrecked, he'd been stoned, right, constantly endangered, and prisoned frequently near death. We see that in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Specifically, we look at verses 23 through 28. This is what it says, it says,

Are they servants of Christ? I'm a better one. I'm talking like a madman. With far greater labors, four more imprisonments, with countless beatings and often near death, five times I've received at the hands of the Jews, 40 lashes less than one, three times I've been beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a day and a night I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys in danger from rivers danger from robbers, dangers from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers in toil and hardship, though many a sleepless nights, and hunger and thirst, often without food, and cold and exposure. And apart from these things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

That's a life of adversity, right? That's a life of someone who just, one thing after another, bam, bam. But let's look at Paul. What was Paul? How was Paul resilient? He was internally focused. What was he internally focused on? His relationship with Christ. He was purpose-driven. Why was he purpose-driven? He was purpose-driven because he knew that his life was no longer his. His life was to preach the gospel. His life was to be an example for Christ, right? So he was internally focused.

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He was purpose driven and he faced adversity.

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Paul maintained his resilience, that man's resilient mindset because, like I said, he knew his purpose.

And through all of it, he faced adversity. He had learned the importance of being content in all circumstances, right? We see that in Philippians chapter four, verse 11. When we look at that, we see in Philippians chapter four, verse 11 through 13, he says, "'I am not speaking of being in need, "'for I have learned that in whatever situation "'I am to be content. "'I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. "'In any and every circumstance, "'I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. And we're like.

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How did he learn the secret?

The secret's been there the whole time, right? It's our relationship with Christ. So, but look at it, look at Paul. He was internally focused on his relationship with Christ, which fueled his purpose, and what was his purpose? His purpose was to preach the gospel, and gave him the ability to face adversity. Gave him the mindset to say, regardless of what happens, I know that I'm good, I know that on the other side, that I'm going to be okay. See, Here's something.

Paul proclaims, right, that I've been crucified with Christ. There's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. See, that's his internal focus. That is what pushes him. That is what drives him, right? That's his internal focus, and that's what gives him to be purpose driven, is he can say that I have been crucified with Christ. There's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And now the life I live in flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Critical Aspects Podcast (22:12.258)

So here's the thing when we start talking about biblical resilience, when we start talking about faith and how we don't talk about faith enough when we look at life and dealing with life, right? We talk about physical, we talk about mental, we talk about the emotional, but let's talk about the spiritual, let's talk about faith. So our faith gives us purpose, purpose motivates us to push forward despite the adversities that come in our life. Because we already know the victory has been declared.

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So I understand that saying that is easier than living it out and I understand that. It's hard. Life is hard. Life sucks sometimes.

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Sometimes we face adversity that we don't think we can actually withstand and endure and push through. But then you find, especially if you have faith, especially if you are grounded in that, that you have the ability to push through. It doesn't make it any easier, but it gives you the capacity to endure. We lose loved ones, significant loved ones in our lives, giants in our lives that are instrumental in our lives, right?

And we think, how can we push forward through this, but our faith gives us that opportunity to do so.

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See, we remove this aspect because we're afraid to talk about it. We're afraid to say, well,

If we just do these exercises and push forward and go out and move, it'll help us. Is that true? Absolutely. Right. But only to a certain degree. There is nothing that is more rewarding, gives you more peace and understanding than knowing that you're internally focused with your relationship with Christ. It's knowing what your purpose is. And

Maybe you've got a specific call on your life, but for believers that specific call is to what? It's to be an example to those around us. That's your purpose. And that gives you the ability to face life, to face adversity. And I don't stand here and tell you this because it's not like I've never faced anything because I have. It's not like I haven't experienced things that sometimes you step back and say, man, life just sucks.

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But we have to step back and say, okay, in those moments, where am I at? Am I internally focused? If I'm internally focused, what am I internally focused on? Is it's your relationship with Christ? Because when you're internally focused on that, you understand your purpose. You understand moving forward, and it gives you the ability to face adversity.

I know that this is a little bit different than normal because we're really diving into the spiritual aspect. But this is spiritual self-care. This is biblical resilience. It's based on scripture. It's based on your relationship with Christ. It is steeped. It is marinated. It is bathed in the Word of God. And it gives you the ability to withstand and push through life.

There's nothing in scripture that ever tells you.

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follow Christ and everything's gonna be sunshine and rainbows, because it's not. It's not, it never will be, because that's not how life is. Because sins in the world, there's gonna be hardship, there's going to be struggles, there's gonna be circumstances, there's gonna be adversity. But we have that hope because of our relationship with Christ, he's overcome the world. That's the peace we have, that's the reassurance we have, that's the ability we have to push through things.

So if you're wondering about that, well, how can I be more authentic? How can I demonstrate that? So just recently up on Amazon, there's a short workbook that I just put out that kind of walks you through re-gaining your authenticity for Christ, what that looks like. Right, because if you're authentic, if you're a believer, you wanna invest in your, you know, in your overall self-care, your spiritual self-care, your biblical resilience, right? You have to look at it and it's based on five main points, right? That's life change, it's being humble, it's being teachable, prayerful, and a reproducing disciple.

So it's up on Amazon, check it out. If you got any questions, feel free to reach out. But I just felt really, really burdened to get on here and talk about the spiritual aspect of not only the law enforcement profession, the first responder world, but just in general. Just the fact that we don't talk about the spiritual component that drives who we are because we are all searching for that magic antidote, right? That golden ticket.

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That ticket was already punched on the cross.

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was punched for you, was punched for me. My sin debts wiped clean because of what Christ has done. I acknowledge that, I put my faith and trust in Him. He is my Lord and Savior. He guides everything I do.

He is the focus of everything that I ever strive to do because he took my place.

Right, so we jump back to what Galatians chapter two verse 20 says, right, where Paul says, I am crucified with Christ. There is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

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That's resilience. That's looking at your life and saying, I understand I'm gonna face things, but that's okay because it's no longer my life.

My life belongs to Christ and it's sealed with what he did on the cross.

So, if you have any questions, always feel free to reach out. Don't hesitate if you have to contact me for anything.

I'm always available.

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Work on your spiritual life. Don't just work on the physical, don't just work on the mental, don't just work on the emotional, work on the spiritual.

Because it doesn't do us any good to have a bunch of physically, emotionally strong, cognitively sharp individuals running around that are spiritually lost. We'll see you next time.