DRA’s come rolling out of our hearts like hot lava out of a volcano, with heat and fire. Negative, cynical, critical, can’t do mentality, are some of our favorites. You run into them every day. Listen to parents at school, overhear office talk in the break room, the chatter during phone calls and e-mail, and the rumblings of your own heart. They flow so easily.

DRA’s are motivation killers to the people who want to make a difference. DRA’s are like wagon trains in the Old West. Once word spread that a new wagon train was leaving St. Louis and heading west, wagons showed up from everywhere. DRA’s beget more DRA’s.

Battling DRA’s is tough business. I’ve got my own DRA’s to deal with, as well as the DRA’s of people around me. I was recently challenged by two aspects from the life of King Hezekiah…

2 Chronicles 31:20 This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah, doing what was good and right and faithful before the Lord his God.

First, he did something. He got himself moving.
He broke out of the Paralysis of Analysis.

The DRA Player can always think of reasons why something won’t work. Mr. DRA wants to wait until the plan is virtually bullet proof before it gets launched. Problem is, not much gets done. I was Mr. DRA in my younger Christian days about witnessing. I heard lots of gospel presentations and found something wrong with them all. My mentor finally said to me, “Seth, I’d rather share the gospel with a method that may not be perfect than your method of avoiding witnessing altogether.” B-I-N-G-O.

Hezekiah followed one of the most evil kings in Israel’s history, King Ahaz. Notice Hezekiah set himself to “doing” something about the awful situation he was confronted with. He took it a step at a time, doing something “good,” doing something “right” and doing something “faithful” “before the Lord his God.” He looked past the Mr. and Mrs. DRA’s in his life who would be detractors and determined to do what he could for a new audience, God.

2 Chronicles 31:21 In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked whole-heartedly. So he prospered.

Second, Hezekiah broke the DRA Barrier. How? He sought God, seeking to please Him, serve Him, focus his attention on God’s purpose. He then threw his heart into his endeavors “whole-heartedly.”

I have my own DRA Barrier to break through. The DRA Barrier gets taller and thicker the more I try to please people. The more I set my eyes on God and His purposes, seek to please Him, and throw my heart into that endeavor, the smaller the DRA Barrier gets.

Hezekiah: First action: get started, jump off the diving board, get out of the stands and into the game, hit the beach, small steps, but get moving!

Second attitude adjustment: ultimately you are serving God and pleasing Him! Not yourself, not others. And throw your heart into the arena. Take the lead. Set the standard. Take a risk.