Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Tips for triumphant living -- Godly Comebacks

Chuck Swindoll said, “I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.”

Evidently I'm not done with last week's topic about "dancing" because this is what came out when I sat down to write. I promise to move on to something new next week. :-)

I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Swindoll. We may think that reacting in an appropriate way to difficuties is easy, but for most of us it’s not. We have to choose how we’re going to respond to what comes at us. Sometimes we don’t look or act anything like Christ.

The problem may be something “small” like a moment of irritation with a store clerk (I’ve had to apologize more than once) or it might be something significant or even life-threatening. I’ve had personal experience with this kind of thing as well.

Seventeen years ago one of the biggest tests of my faith smacked in to me in the form of a log truck. My immediate response was to praise God for His goodness—He’d saved my life. But pain filled weeks and months piled up and what followed was fear, anger, and depression. I waited for God to make me better inside and out, but with each passing day, each painful test, and each additional disappointment I sank further into desolation and wondered what had become of my faith.

I accept that drastic changes in our lives often require time and that there are phases of growth. I needed time to grow through all that was happening to me, to learn to accept and even embrace the new me. It didn’t come easy. And there were days of shame and tears when I wondered why I wasn’t responding to this “tragedy” in a more Godly manner.

But it’s the fruit of what came out of the dark days that really matters. God understands grieving and the process of becoming who He wishes us to be. He was patient with me. I finally climbed out of the pit of despair and went on, deciding to live my life—to find out what I could do and then do it. A fabulous truth is that I didn’t have to make one step of that journey alone. God was and is with me every moment.

I believe nothing touches me that God does not allow. So . . . if that’s true who am I to question His choices for me? He wants me to grow up and become more like Christ. That can’t happen without pressure, which often comes in the form of hardships or trials.

How are we going to respond to the challenges? If we rely on our Lord in the day-to-day, trusting and growing in Christ will be an automatic result, which offers immeasurable blessings. And the beautiful thing is that our blessings flow over into the lives of other people.

How will we respond to the next “something” that comes into our life? It can happen at any moment. So let’s be prepared and set our minds upon Christ.


Abundant blessings,

Bonnie

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