Great Big Life: Have yourself a good stretch

Have yourself a good stretch

As we all wake up to the reality of a brand new year, I pray that your heart is filled with expectancy and faith towards it rather than dread or fear. The reality is that this year can be different for you. It could be the best year yet.

But to make this a reality it may mean that you need to do some things differently or even have a go at doing stuff you have not done before. Do this and you will cause a ‘stretch’ in your life that will take it from where it is now, into a new place where anything can happen.

Stretching is good for you

According to different experts in varying fields of life, apparently, the right amount of regular stretching is very beneficial, even vital.

In a gym or fitness centre they say that it is vital to stretch before exercising to promote muscle growth and development. In an article on the web, it told me that stretching in the morning has an incredible benefit for the whole body. Here’s an excerpt from that article:

Why does stretching feel so good, especially when you have just woken up?

There are several reasons why and they are all interconnected.

Firstly is circulation. Blood flow is not just caused by the heart. Although arteries pulse with the heartbeat, veins work by being squeezed by the muscle around them. When you stretch, you tense all of your muscles, which squeeze all the spent blood back to the heart and lungs, and which is then replaced by oxygenated blood.

When all the muscles tense in a stretch, the heart increases its output, so increasing blood flow around the body, including the brain. This saturates the brain with oxygenated blood.

When you stretch, you expand the chest cavity, increasing the capacity of the lungs. This increases the amount of oxygen getting into the blood. Therefore the blood getting around your body is richer for those few moments.

Wow! So, according to this, when you physically stretch it affects your whole body. I believe that principle carries through to every aspect of stretching in life: when you stretch, your whole life benefits.

Stretching beyond what you presently know and presently do

If you want to see something you have not seen, you have to do something you have not done. Take apple pie, for example: to constantly create the same apple pie is easy – just keep using the same ingredients, temperatures, utensils and you can guarantee to same result, week in, week out. Life is like that. Unless you stretch beyond what you currently do, everything will stay the same.

Stretching takes you outside of your present comfort zone

The reality is that stretching always takes you outside of your present comfort zone, but let’s face it, most of us should have left certain comforts zones a long time ago. When reading the Bible I noticed that anyone who did anything significant first left a comfort zone! Have a look at Moses, Gideon, Joshua and Elisha. All dared to step out of a place of comfort and security to gain what God had promised them.

Mega example

A mega example of this was Abraham, or Abram as he was known then. When we read the account of his life we see that God stepped into his nice, safe, comfort zone and called him out of it. And as Abraham dared to live in the stretch zone, his life got incredibly bigger by the minute.

“Now the LORD had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.” Genesis 12:1-4

Notice that the pattern starts with a promise of a new or bigger life and destiny, a larger existence. Then in comes the cost or the stretching that it will take to make it happen. You can see this pattern used by God time and time again. Remember the account in Matthew of the rich young ruler. Here is the same pattern. He is asked to leave his comfort zone to apprehend the life he really wanted. God is not cruel, He just needs to release us from the containment that we are in, in order to bring us into the bigger place that He has in store for us.

For Abraham that stretching meant two things:

Get out your country – leave the place you are presently at in life
Leave your father’s house – leave what you have attached safety and security to.

Up to this point he had lived in the security of his father’s house. Now God was promising him his own big existence but it meant leaving or letting go of what he currently relied on and knew. Also he needed to understand that it was about more than him. God’s plan was to bless others through him.

“And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you [with abundant increase of favours] and make your name famous and distinguished, and you will be a blessing [dispensing good to others always].” Genesis 12:2 (AMP)

That’s true for each of us when we go for what God has for us and we are kingdom-minded. It’s never just about us but also about those who God will bless through our lives through the courageous stretches we dare to make. Also note that Abraham was 75 when he did his stretch, proving that you are never too old. Him leaving his comfort zone is what pressed ‘play’.

Notice that, as with the rich young ruler, nothing happened until Abraham left, or went beyond, his comfort zone. Again, it’s the same for us: until we stretch beyond what we presently are comfortable with, we cannot increase beyond what we currently are, or see the promises of God come into play. It’s as if God stands in the stretch zone of our lives and beckons us.

The zones of life

As with Abraham, we all have 3 zones in which we can choose to live and, like him, have all probably lived in each one of them at one time or another: the Comfort Zone, the Stretch Zone or the Panic Zone?

I recently heard a business teaching that I thought was really good so I grabbed it and brought it into the church to help with teaching people to live big.

[zone diagram]

Take a look at the diagram opposite and you see that each zone has a name and contains words that are used by a person that maybe in that zone. As you read them you can probably remember times you have spent in each. The point is that it’s the stretch zone that you need to be in. It’s the stretch zone that God called Abraham into to enable him to get the life intended for him. Research shows that it’s the stretch zone where we function and live at our best pace and effectiveness.

The question is: where are you today?

If you’re in the comfort zone and those words are the words you would use for describing your life, you need to do something to get yourself back into the stretch zone. Then things can start happening again and you can feel really alive and not just as though you’re living on ‘pause’. Equally, if you’re in the panic zone, it’s time to come back one stage and get back into the feeling of being stretched but not torn apart. And finally, if you’re in the stretch zone STAY WHERE YOU ARE! This is the place where you are being your most effective in life.

Sometimes we need to do things that help us get into stretch zone

I believe Church should be an environment where your life flourishes, an environment where you are encouraged to stretch and grow in every area of life and destiny. Church truly should be a place that is always God-centred, purpose-driven and people-empowering.

“Those who are planted in the house of the LORD Shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing.” Psalm 92:13-14

Flourishing is the result of stretching. Think about a flower blooming. The bloom never precedes the flower stretching to expectantly accommodate it.

I want to help some of you this year to get back into the stretch zone but you need to realise that this means leaving the comfort zone. And I am not just talking spiritually but in every aspect of life.

The ‘TSN’ challenge – ‘Try Something New’

I don’t know what new thing you need to try, but you need to try it! Maybe it’s something that you have always wanted to have a go at, to study or to start doing. As motivational guru Tony Robbins teaches: “It’s time to stop should-ing all over yourself and start doing”. Sadly too many people spend their lives saying “I should have done this” or “I should have done that”. We must grab the day we have.

What is your ‘something new’ to stretch you into that new zone of life?

Further your learning – maybe do some further education course or distance learning and add to your CV a whole new skill or trade.
Sign up to learn something you don’t know: how about cake-making (for the guys?!) salsa or tango classes.
Take up that sport that you have always wanted to: swimming, fitness training; walking – anything that takes you beyond what you currently do.
Sign up in church for something you have not yet done: Life Groups; a discipleship module; join one of the teams that make church happen.

My challenge to you is that, within the next month, you sign up for or start something that takes you outside of your comfort zone. Stretch and grow, I dare you.

Stretch towards a bigger life

When we read the words of Paul we see a man that did not remain in what he knew but ever reached and stretched forward to what could be. This kept him out of the comfort zone of religious activity and positioned in the place where God was able to ever increase him. Let’s be inspired by his example.

“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13–14

This year, in our walk with God, let’s all stretch or reach forward for more of Him and more of the plans He has for our lives. As we do, we will be like Abraham and not be disappointed. God does not call you out of a comfort zone to disappoint you. Let’s all believe God for an awesome year, a year of dreams come true because we dared to stretch towards them.