You Can Do Hard Things, Part 2

Good morning, my friend. I hope you're doing well. Dr. Lee Warren here with you, and it is Friday.

Boy, it's been kind of a weird week. Yesterday was supposed to be Theology Thursday,

and right when I was ready to record the episode, my computer went into some

kind of update mode and spent the next hour doing some sort of mandatory update

that I could not stop, and it just wasn't going to happen yesterday.

So I gave you back an old episode yesterday, Hold On, Pain Ends.

And as it turns out, that episode spawned a little bit of clarity of thinking

for the Theology Thursday episode that I intend to bring you today,

which is now Friday, so it's not Theology Thursday anymore,

but maybe we'll call it Faith Friday, Frontal Lobe Friday.

It's gonna be all about a little reset you can do on your faith when you're having some hard times.

And I just wanna give you the truth about one thing, and that is,

as we talked about day before yesterday when I told you that you can do hard

things, The truth is friend.

There's gonna be some hard stuff in your life if you haven't had it yet I hate

to be the one to tell you but there's gonna be some trauma and some tragedy

and some massive things and as we get into the last part of the year and the

holidays and all the gatherings and the time of,

Remembering and all that if you have been through a hard thing or you are going through one.

Currently, this is a tough time of year Sometimes there's some memories to get

dredged up and there's some some empty seats at the table and it could be a

difficult time of year, and I just want you to remember that you can do hard things. You can.

And there's a good reason almost to want to do those hard things,

because from a brain science standpoint, we get better and stronger and more

resilient when we suffer a little bit and when we go through hard things.

And it sounds like a difficult teaching, but I'm going to show you why there's hope everywhere.

And as for me, Psalm 71 14 says, I will always have hope.

So today we're going to talk about the fact that you, my friend,

wherever you are in the world, whatever you're going through, you can do hard things.

And if you're ready to understand why and you're ready to really step into that

reality and learn how to do hard things in a way that leaves you feeling better,

becoming healthier and maybe even being happier.

And I just have one question for you.

Hey, are you ready to change your life? If the answer is yes, there's only one rule.

You have to change your mind first. And my friend, there's a place for the neuroscience

of how your mind works smashes together with faith and everything starts to

make sense. Are you ready to change your life?

Well, this is the place. Self Brain Surgery School.

I'm, dr. Lee warren and this is where we go deep into how we're wired take control

of our thinking and find real hope this Is where we learn to become healthier

feel better and be happier This is where we leave the past behind and transform our minds.

This is where we start today. Are you ready? This is your podcast. This is your place.

This is your time my friend. Let's get after it.

Music.

Okay, you ready to get after it? We are getting ready to get into frontal lobe

Friday, and we're going to talk about how doing hard things makes you better able to do hard things.

It sounds like a funny thing to say. I'm going to give you a couple of random

things first, and they'll tie together at the end.

You know how I always kind of bring things back around. And a couple of random

things, Deuteronomy 22, 22.

Katrina Henderson posted this on her Instagram story the other day,

our friend in Australia, who was in Israel during the terrorist attack.

And fortunately, blessedly, she made it home safely.

But she posted Deuteronomy 22, 22. And that verse is perfect for us today.

It says this, if God opens a door, no one can shut it.

And if God shuts a door, no one can open it.

So I just wanna randomly throw this out in the

way that random things tend to turn out to be helpful to somebody

out there listening every time we mention a Quote-unquote random thing if you've

been beating your head against the door that you desperately want to open and

it is just not opening Then maybe you should think I wonder if God shut this

door because if God shut it, it's not gonna open,

Or if you've been trying desperately to close the door something you do not

want to do and you keep feeling called to it or you keep feeling drawn to it

and you just can't keep finding yourself in front of an opportunity or a situation

that you really hesitated to do,

maybe you need to pray and maybe you need to seek the will of God to say,

hey is this door open because you opened it? Am I supposed to walk through this door?

And maybe if you're just struggling to either open a door that seems impossibly

closed or or close a door that seems impossibly stuck open, maybe it's time

to reevaluate the situation.

Because sometimes if we feel frustrated, it's because we're going against God's plan for our life.

Okay? Now, take that random thought and do with it what you will,

but just if you're out there and you're struggling, and you seem like you're

pulling and pulling and pulling on that door, and it's closed,

maybe it's because you're not supposed to open it, and vice versa.

Okay, just take that thought and set it aside for a second and check out this

little gem that came back from the episode yesterday, Hold On,

Pain Ends, Hosea 2.15. That's another scripture.

Hosea 2.15 says this.

I will give her back her vineyards. He's referring to the people who've been

exiled and having trouble.

And I will make the valley of trouble a door of hope.

I will turn the valley of trouble into a door of hope. That's Hosea 2.15. What's he saying?

Sometimes you're in a valley, you're in the midst of a long journey,

you're in the desert, you're in the wilderness, and you can't find your way.

And God says, you know what, this path that you're on is gonna turn out to lead you to hope.

This path that you're on right now, where you're struggling and you're hurting

and you feel exiled and you feel lost and you feel like you're in the wilderness

and I'm showing you that there is a door that you are walking through with me

in the middle of the story that's gonna redeem you and restore you and be good for you in the end.

God's promises always come true, always come true, friend, they always do.

His word never goes out empty and he's telling you, no matter what the season

is that you're in, no matter what you're going through right now in this tough time of year,

you're having trouble, remember, with those memories and you're having trouble

with those massive things of the past, and God says, hey, I'm gonna take this

valley of trouble that you're in and I'm gonna make it a door of hope.

And remember, if God opens a door, nobody can shut it, okay?

When he does something, it's on a scale that we can't even imagine or understand.

So there's the two random, supposedly random things that I have for you this

morning. Just wanna give you that.

And I was gonna get into this episode about you can do hard things.

And I think those two verses that we just talked about, Deuteronomy 22,

22, and Hosea 2, 15, I think they're gonna be relevant to us and we're gonna get after it.

But first, let's talk about one thing real quick.

And before we go any further, I wanna remind you about our sponsors for this

episode, Peak, P-I-Q-U-E, and Armra, A-R-M-R-A.

These are two products that Lisa and I use every day. I mix them up in my athletic

greens. It's a nutrient, probiotic, prebiotic, vitamin, mineral substance that I drink every day.

I'm not a paid affiliate of Athletic Greens, but I do drink it every day.

And I'll just remind you, if you're going to add a supplement to your diet or

any kind of major change in your health, especially if you have chronic health

issues or take medications or if you're older, talk to your doctor before you add something.

The PEEK and Armoura help with immune system support. They support gut and the

gut-brain interface, which is so important.

As I've told you before that your gut is like a USB port and what you stick

a thumb drive in there and your brain Gets everything that goes into your gut

if you're gonna build new synapses and change the way you think and become more

resilient You got to have a good building block.

Because if you build a house out of terrible materials, then you're going to

have a terrible house that's not very strong.

And the same thing happens. The nutrients that you put into your gut become

antigens that you create disease around, or they become building blocks for

the things, the proteins and the molecules in your brain that you need.

And so put good stuff in there. Peak and Armor help us. If you buy them through

our links that you'll see in

the show notes, then it helps us to grow the podcast and all that stuff.

So check out the links in the show notes for Peak and Armor, especially

this time of year when gathering people who have viruses and

sneezing and coughing all that stuff so Peak and

Armor helping us to get the podcast out there even farther

and then help you become healthier and feel better and be happier okay

Romans 5 3 through 5 I'm gonna give you three scriptures

then I'm gonna give you one thing from science and then we're gonna smash them

together to help you learn that you can do hard things and there's actually

a reason why you want to do hard things okay Romans 5 3 through 5 says this

not only so but we also glory in our sufferings,

because we know that suffering produces perseverance.

Perseverance produces character, and character produces hope.

Okay, check it out. We know that suffering produces perseverance,

perseverance produces character, and character produces hope.

Now check that out. That's an interesting little sequence there.

When we go through suffering, we have to persevere, and as we persevere,

we become stronger, we We become more able to keep going, and that produces character.

We become people who are able to bear up under hard things.

We become people who are defined by our resilience and by our ability to deal

with difficulty, and that character over time produces hope. Why?

Not because it gives us everything comes true that we wish for.

That's not what biblical hope is.

Biblical hope is not in a particular thing. It's on a particular person.

We know that our Savior went through the hardest things imaginable,

despised and rejected by men,

sinless life, but still falsely accused and suffered and crucified and died

and bore the brunt of our sin and been defeated death and all those super hard things that Jesus did.

And he turned out to have the character of a person who can endure under great strain and not break.

And that means that we can have hope in Him because He says, guess what?

What I did for you, you get to benefit from that. I'm going to redeem you.

I'm going to restore you. I'm going to resurrect you. You're gonna live with me forever, okay?

That produces hope. Biblical hope is in someone, it's not for a thing.

And so what happens then is you start saying, you know what,

He said if I would hold on, it would get better. He would come alongside me in my pain.

He would be close to me when I'm brokenhearted, and He was. The last time I

went through this hard thing, all those promises turned out to be true.

So therefore, I can do it again. Whatever this hard thing is,

whatever this massive thing is, whatever this season is, where I'm remembering

and I'm suffering and I'm grieving and I'm hurting, I can remember that He's

gotten me through that before. He's gotten other people through it before.

That's called hope. We're remembering and we're keeping on moving.

We're gonna go through that valley because we know He's gonna turn it into a door of hope. Right?

That's what Romans 5, 3 through 5 said, or three through four says.

We know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character,

and character produces hope.

Now there's two places, Proverbs 4.26 and Hebrews 12.13, where this little weird

phrase that I used to tell my kids all the time shows up.

Proverbs 2, I'm sorry, Proverbs 4.26 says make level paths for your feet.

Make level paths for your feet. And it says it again in Hebrews.

He quotes the Proverbs passage. is make level paths for your seat,

for your feet. Make level paths. What does that mean?

It means that even when you're in the midst of a hard situation,

you can choose steps that are safer.

In fact, you should if you're ever doing mountain climbing or rock climbing especially.

Like it's a hard thing and it's dangerous. And it's not that you try to avoid

the danger by not climbing the mountain.

It's not like you just try to avoid the problem by not climbing the wall.

What you do though is while you're climbing it, You be careful where you put your hands and feet.

You make the best path forward that you can in the midst of the struggle.

You don't say to the mountain climbing guide, Hey, just put me in a helicopter

and take me up to the top of this mountain. You don't say that.

That would defeat the whole purpose of trying to climb the mountain, right?

You say, show me how to navigate this mountain carefully.

You take the guide and you learn how to grab the right places so that you make

it to the top without dying.

That's what making level paths means, okay? It means that you're aware that

you're in a hard situation.

You're aware that there's danger. You're aware that there's difficulty.

And you're not afraid of that because you know that suffering produces perseverance

and perseverance produces character and character produces hope.

So you want to climb the mountain.

You wanna do the hard thing. You're willing to go through it.

You're not saying just take me out because you know Jesus didn't punch out.

He didn't pull the yellow handle and eject.

He went through it. And because he did, we have hope. So we have to go through

it too because we have to model our ability to hold up under suffering for other

people So they can find that hope too, right?

That's part of our mission here is to show people that with our Savior's help

we can get through hard things Now so that's that's three scriptures Romans 5 3 & 4,

suffering produces perseverance perseverance produces character and character produces hope and.

Proverbs 426 and Hebrews 1213. Make level paths for your feet.

Those are the three scriptures I wanted to give you today. And here's one thing from science.

You have a little part of your brain, we've talked about it before,

the medial subgenuate anterior cingulate cortex. Say that three times fast.

Anterior cingulate cortex. This is that gear shift part of your brain.

It's involved in shifting you from one thought process, one behavior,

one attitude to another, one emotional state to another.

You can get that gear shift going and you can move out of a problem.

We talked before about you're driving down a muddy road and it's progressively

becoming difficult and you're going to sink and you're going to get stuck if you keep going forward.

But the good news is you have another gear you can put your truck into.

Put it in four-wheel drive and you can make it a little farther or you can put

it in reverse and you can back up out of that.

That cingulate gyrus is like that gear shift. It allows you to pivot from one

thing to another, you're not stuck.

And when you get stuck, your cingulate is having trouble getting activated, okay?

So, all those years ago, thousands of years ago, in the Bible,

they told us, hey, you know what?

You need to learn how to do hard things, because when you do hard things,

you become a person of more perseverance.

And when you become a person of more perseverance, you develop a character, a grittiness,

a resilience, and that produces hope, because you know that you've been through

hard things before and you know that nothing can take you out as long as you have Jesus,

as long as you have your mind and your brain working, you have a way to move

forward because you've done it before, because you've seen other people do it before.

Well, guess what the science says? That medial subgenual anterior cingulate

cortex, that big old word that I just said, guess what?

Studies have now shown conclusively That when you engage in a difficult task,

especially one that seems distasteful or hard to you, something you might want to normally avoid,

when you make yourself do those hard things.

Your brain rewires and restructures in a way where it becomes easier for you

to do something hard the next time without having to suffer so much because your brain will say,

okay, the last time I engaged in a hard thing it turned out to be for my benefit

and so this one might be too.

So it's going to be a little easier, there's going to be a little less inertia

at getting into that hard thing and getting it done and that's the beauty of

the way that your mind is wired.

Your mind and your brain are creatively designed to help you endure difficulty,

and come out stronger on the other side. Why?

Because we have a God who turns the valley of trouble into a door of hope.

So whatever you're going through, my friend, whatever you've been through,

whatever memories are coming up from the past that are hurting you,

just know that suffering produces perseverance.

It's not good. Nobody wants to suffer, but it's one of those quantum physics

things where your God says, hey, you might have to suffer for a little while,

because I'm not necessarily gonna take you out of all your troubles,

because I had to go through them too, but I'm going to redeem you,

and there's gonna come a time where I'm gonna wipe away every tear.

And it's gonna be true. You're gonna be redeemed.

All those promises of Psalm 103 are gonna come true.

I'm gonna forgive all your sins and heal all your diseases and redeem you from

the pit and crown you with love and compassion and satisfy your desires.

I'm gonna do all those things, But you got to have the timeline,

you got to have your eyes on the long narrative arc of this story that we're in.

And know that even if you have to walk through a long valley of suffering,

there's gonna be a door of hope that you're gonna walk through at the end.

And if I open a door, nobody can close it.

That's how we smash the faith and the science together.

Listen, there's a little a little proverb that I came up with the other day.

I think the Holy Spirit gave it to me in the middle of night.

And I was thinking about I'm gonna have a guy named Bob Lodich on the podcast.

I'm interviewing him later today, and he's a finance guy He's written an incredible

book simple money rich life,

And he's about investing and saving and learning how to handle your money in

a different way in a more spiritually complex way that helps you honor God with your finances,

And solve some of those recurring money problems in your life And as I was thinking

about that interview and reading his book and preparing it on me that there's

a time in your life when you have to be kind of poor.

And you have to live in a kind of restrained way so that later in your life,

you can live in an easier and more relaxed way.

And you're gonna do that. You're either gonna start kind of poor and then end

up in a safer, better place, or you're going to start by spending every dime

you get, and then you're gonna end up poor at the end, struggling and worrying

about money at the end of your life.

You're gonna do one of those two things. Now, there's obviously other ways that

that can go. Or you're gonna be a person who just struggles financially your entire life, okay?

So it kind of dawned on me as I was thinking about money and really about everything,

there's always a hard path that leads to an easier life.

And there's always an easy path that leads to a hard life.

There's a hard path that leads to an easier life. This is,

you put in the hours, you do the work, you finally get the promotion,

you end up on top at the end of your career and things get better for you because

you did the hard thing at the start or you save and you invest and you discipline

yourself around money and you end up in a few years and saying, you know what,

I'm not quite in that financial peril all the time.

I don't have to worry so much about how the bills are gonna get paid.

I'm starting to feel like my money's earning money for me and all that stuff

and you could end up in a place that's better for you at the end of your life

where you're not so stressed out around finances all the time.

Or, you know, I took care of my body and I went to the gym and I did all the

things and I watched my blood pressure and I did everything better.

And so now I'm getting older and I don't have to worry quite so much about the

chronic illnesses that some of my friends are getting because they overate or

drank too much or smoked or whatever.

So there's a hard path that produces some benefit and some easier living down the road sometimes.

And then there's an easy path that ends up hard. So I buy what I want,

I spend what I want, I sleep with who I want, I drink what I want,

I eat what I want, I goof off at work.

And all of a sudden I'm getting fired or I'm not getting promoted or I don't

have any money or I'm Having a heart attack at 45 or my wife left me because

she couldn't put up with it anymore You know, you know what I'm saying?

You always do what sounds good or feels good at the time You end up later with

a hard life because you took the easy path.

Now, I'm gonna give you a disclaimer right here Be careful to hear what I'm

saying There are traumas and tragedies and massive things that come along even

when you've done everything right, okay?

So I'm not saying that if you if you do the hard things that you're not gonna

have any trouble You'll never hear me say that you know that okay?

What I'm saying is that there are principles that when you generally choose

To go through things and take the right steps and make the level path that you

have a better path forward Than if you don't that's what I'm saying.

That's because there are traumas and tragedies and massive things we need to

do everything else that we can do To make the path as level as possible when

we're not in the midst of those things.

That's what i'm saying so when you talk about Making level paths for your feet.

That's not saying that you should always choose the thing that seems easiest

It's the opposite It's this quantum physics idea where something can be hard

and good at the same time something can feel like suffering but have purpose

behind it at the same time. And this is that idea.

You take those level paths idea, and you say, okay, God, if you've got me in

this valley of trouble, then how do we navigate this? Show me the steps.

How do we handle this in a way that's gonna lead us to that door of hope that

you promised us? Because I know it's there, because you said it.

So we're gonna walk through this valley together, and we're gonna go through

this trouble, and we're gonna make level paths as much as we can in the midst of it.

We're gonna handle ourselves in a way that produces movement forward towards the door of hope.

And that, my friend, is why you can do hard things. You can do hard things because

you're a self-brain surgeon.

And you're gonna say, you know what? I know that I want my anterior cingulate

cortex to be an efficient and functional gear shift for me.

And I know that choosing to go through hard things and not shirking back from

them and not numbing myself from them and not just drinking myself to sleep

instead of dealing with them,

that doing these hard things is the way that God keeps His promise of making

a valley of suffering turn into a door of hope.

And every time I do, that Romans 5, 3 through 4 engine runs.

And this suffering starts turning into perseverance, and that perseverance starts

turning into character, and that character starts turning into hope.

And hope doesn't disappoint because we know who we have hope in,

and not just what we have hope for.

So that, my friend, is a little neuroscience lesson about why you can do hard things.

You can do hard things because your brain is wired for them and your spirit

is primed to turn those hard things into living hope.

And you can smash that stuff together here on Frontal Lobe Friday,

and you can start thinking differently about suffering.

And if you're in a time of year when things seem hard.

And you can't stop thinking about that thing that you lost or that thing that

you went through or that person that's not at the table anymore,

and you can remember that that story doesn't end with you having to be miserable

and suffer and having that define the rest of your life.

That story can be redeemed and you can walk through that door of hope and you can say,

yes, I went through this hard thing and God was there with me and I found a

way through that and I'll walk through that door of hope and now I can help

you find that path too because I can tell you that my story is not defined by

the hard things I've been through,

but it's refined by the hard things I've been through.

And friend, if you can wrap your brain around that, then there is no limit to

what God can take you through because that suffering will produce a person who

has persevered, who has great character and great hope and is ready for the

next time you face something hard.

And you can keep shining that light a little bit backwards so people behind

you can see some of the level paths that they can take too.

And that's how we all keep moving forward together. If you wanna become healthier

and feel better and be happier, you need to do hard things.

And the good news is you can do hard things. And the super, really super good

news is my friend here on Funnel Low Friday is that you can start today.

Music.

♪♪♪ Hey, thanks for listening. The Dr.

Lee Warren podcast is brought to you by my brand new book, Hope is the First Dose.

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