Stop Running And Start Facing Hard Things

A storm is coming. Do you run, or do you do what the buffalo does and walk straight into it? That one image flips the way we think about fear, discomfort, and the hard seasons we all face. I share a quick story from a family trip across the northern United States and a surprising fact about the American buffalo: when storms approach, they don’t scatter. They face the wind head on, because moving through it beats getting chased by it.
One more key takeaway matters just as much as courage: buffalo face storms as a herd. We need our people too. Friends, family, and church support can give us wisdom, strength, and stability when we feel tempted to hide or handle everything alone. If you need a five minute reset for resilience, faith, and practical encouragement, press play, then share this with someone in your “herd” and leave a review so more listeners can start their day strong.

Transcript

A Five Minute Morning Start

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mack. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax, and let me help you start your day right.

The Buffalo Rule For Storms

SPEAKER_00 0:22

The American buffalo is a magnificent creature. I remember several years ago my family and I traveled across the northern portion of the United States, from Washington across Idaho, through Montana, and into North Dakota. There were several places where we saw large herds of buffalo. They're magnificent, and I can only imagine what it would have been like when there were monstrous herds of them running across the plains of North America. I learned something recently about Buffalo though that's quite interesting. You see, when storms approach Buffalo, they instinctively face the storm, and then they move towards the storm. They don't run away like other animals would trying to find shelter. Instead they go directly into that storm. This article talked about why they do that. And apparently the answer applies to their approach to adversity. See, buffalo tend to approach adversity whatever it might be head on. They almost never run away from a challenge. And apparently they also know that if they go towards the storm, they'll probably get through it more quickly than if they try to run away from it. When I read about that, I realized how distinctly different a powerful, beautiful animal like a buffalo is than we are as human beings. For most of us, our tendency is to run away from storms instead of facing them. It's a common instinct within us to avoid discomfort, uncertainty, and adversity. We've talked about it several times over the last couple weeks. We all seek comfort, we all seek safety. We want to run away from anything that threatens our sense of security. There is a lesson about facing our storms that we can learn from these mighty buffalo.

Scripture And A Stronger Mindset

SPEAKER_00 2:12

In Proverbs chapter twenty four, verse ten it says, If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Challenges are an inevitable part of life, and how we respond to them really defines our character. Over in Matthew twenty-six verse forty-one, Jesus says, Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. In this verse, Jesus is reminding us of the internal conflict that we often face when we're dealing with adversity. We desire to overcome the challenges, but the response of our human instinct and our human frailty is often that we want to take the path of the least resistance. So the question is how can we shift our mindset from running away to facing our storms? One approach is what some people call the growth mindset. It's the perspective that sees the challenge as an opportunity for learning and growth, and instead of fearing failure, we can see it as a stepping stone towards what we want to be and what we want to become. God has told us many times we will face trials and tribulations, we will have problems. We're not going to have a stress and trouble free life. But we also know that God uses those problems, those stresses, those challenges that we have to shape us, to mold us, to prove who He is to us again and again and again as He guides and helps us for those difficult and trying times.

Face Hard Times With Your Herd

SPEAKER_00 3:47

And one more quick lesson from the buffalo that we should hang on to. When they face the storms, they always face them as the herd. They were always together. We need our friends and family and our church support around us to help us. Don't try facing those problems alone. Make sure that you have the support around you to get you through, to give you courage and strength when you're not feeling courage and strength, to give you wisdom when you are considering doing foolish things. We need our herd around us to help us. And if we do, we can and will get through the storms of life that we face. I hope that for each of us as we face our challenges, the things that come against us to distract us and seemingly sometimes wanting to destroy us, that we will not do it alone. We'll face it with our faith in God and with our friends and family helping us and surrounding us as we move through it. And we will face it head on. We will not try to run away and hide, because I can pretty well guarantee that you will never be able to truly hide from all of the challenges that you will come against. Be strong, my friends. Be wise, and let God's

Final Encouragement And Daily Invite

SPEAKER_00 5:12

strength give you the victory as you face the challenges of this life. Have a great day, my friends. We will talk again tomorrow. Thank you for joining us today, and I invite you to join us every Monday to Friday right here at Starting Right with Danny Mack.