Last week, I wrote about how you can rise from rock bottom. The first step was acceptance. Specifically, you must accept reality.

Here’s part 2…

Accept Responsibility

Are you sick right now? Don’t just accept reality. Accept responsibility too. Don’t just say, “Boohoo is me, I’m sick. I’m going to die now.”

Ask yourself, “What can I do to reverse this disease?”

For the longest time, doctors said that heart disease is irreversible. A blocked artery is irreversible and can only be cured by a bypass operation. Enter Dr. Dean Ornish who invited heart patients who were already scheduled for surgery to join a 30-day retreat where he taught them how to change their lifestyle. And those guys left his retreat cured. They no longer needed the surgery. For the past 30 years, he’s been curing people with heart disease by advising them to change their diet, exercise moderately, practice yoga and meditation, and build relationships.

Feel What You Feel, Act What You Know

I always tell people, “Feel what you feel.” If you’re angry, feel your anger. If you’re sad, feel your sadness. If you’re worried, feel your worry. Never deny what you feel. Why? What you feel, you can heal. The reason many persons are stuck-up is because they deny their feelings.

But feeling what you feel does not mean acting what you feel. Accepting your feelings means accepting your responsibility over those feelings. Feel what you feel, yes, but act what you know.

I remember this mother who was waking up her son, “Felipe, wake up. It’s Sunday morning. It’s time to go to church now.”

Felipe said, “Mommy, I am so sleepy. I’m so tired. I don’t want to get out of bed. Give me three reasons I should get out of bed.”

The mother said, “Felipe, first reason, because Sunday is God’s Day. Second reason, because God has to be first in your life. And third reason, you’re the parish priest…”

One time during a mission trip, from Dubai, I landed at the Manila airport at 1 a.m. I slept at 3 a.m. and woke up at 6 a.m.. Of course, I didn’t want to get out bed. After preaching for 11 days straight in Israel, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai, I was bone tired. But I had to accept my responsibility as a preacher. So I got up and came to The Feast. Backstage, I was still tired and sleepy. So I had to jump up and down like a hyperactive rabbit—just to shake off the exhaustion in my body– because the Feast attendees deserve a preacher that’s alive.

Let me give you another story….

You Are Your Choices

A woman asked me to pray over her. She confessed that she had seven boyfriends—some single, some already married. And all of her relationships were sexual relationships. She felt like a used, dirty rag.

When I prayed over her, I was inspired to tell her, “God says you’re very beautiful.”

Instantly, she broke down, crying non-stop. I allowed her to cry because I felt they were healing tears that were washing her soul.

Later, she told me that when she was a child, her father told her, “You’re ugly.”

So all her life, she felt ugly. And she knew that she jumped from guy to guy because she was hungry for a father’s love.

But she was tired of what was happening in her life. In our prayer together, she realized she couldn’t just blame her father for what was happening to her. Yes, her father hurt her, but she was hurting herself more. She decided to accept responsibility.

Remember: Life is not what happens to you. Life is what you do to what happens to you.

After our prayer, after I embraced her (in public—with hundreds of people around us), she was like a new person. Years later, I met her again. She was still single and happy. She realized she didn’t need any man in her life to make her happy.

Friend, you can rise from rock bottom.

Accept your responsibilities. Take ownership of it. Then take charge.

May your dreams come true,

Bo Sanchez