Category Archives: Suffering

Growing, mindfulness, Personal, Suffering, Uncategorized

Challenges Come And Challenges Go!

This past Sunday, I shared a message entitled ”Speak Blessing!” The message was basically an encouragement to realize there is power in our words and we need to choose them carefully. I do my best to practice what I preach, so my goal was to live a positive life and only speak blessing this week. Great goal right?

Of course you know what happens whenever you get committed to living a positive life? Life seems to throw as much negative as it can and before you know it, your best intentions have become paving material for a road to you know where…

Live life long enough and you will discover that this is in fact life. Just because you are thinking, living and speaking positivity does not mean that you won’t have challenges, disappointments and frustrations. Life is made up of ups and downs, mountain tops and valleys, success and failure.

I’m not going to go into detail of all that has gone wrong this week, but I will tell you, I am doing my best to stay positive, upbeat and teachable. There are a few things I have to keep reminding myself about and I’ve become very fond of the saying: ”What doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.”

Here are a few good reminders for you to remember when you’re trying to keep in the positive lane of life, even while it seems that everything and everybody keeps trying to force you into the negative…

CHALLNGES GROW YOU LIKE NOTHING ELSE CAN!

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in her classic on ”Death And Dying” said: ”If you shield the mountain from the wind storms, you never see the beauty of the carvings. There is a purpose to your pain. This does not make it easier, but it helps to know and remember that it’s not all for nothing. We are continually being shaped, grown and developed and this is what we call living.

GROWTH AND HEALING ARE A PROCESS!

We are born into this human experience as a baby, but we don’t stay a baby, we grow, develop and learn, but it takes time, because it’s a process. When we fall down and scrape our knee, as it heals, it gets a very ugly scab, which we are tempted to pick at and remove, but it is actually our bodies way of healing and healing takes time because it’s a process. This life is a process, so nothing, no matter how bad it may seem is ever final, not even death.

THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING TO LEARN!

The question we need to always run to is: ”What is this trying to teach me?” The quicker I learn the lesson, the quicker I get free to live the positive life of blessing I was created for. What is life and the challenges you face trying to teach you???

Suffering

Rejoice In Suffering!

By nature – I do my best to avoid pain!  In fact, I have told Joy many times that I am not afraid of dying – I just don’t want it to hurt!  Last Sunday I shared in a message on ministry that sometime our ministry for God and to others will take us to a place where it costs us.  Serving God will not always be convenient and work according to our schedule.  Serving God will not always be easy – many times it will require that we give more of ourselves than we had originally planned.  But if our service and ministry are really for God, then we can rejoice in any suffering that might come our way!

God is allowing me to learn some of this lesson first hand this week.  I am battling some physical problems in the midst of one of our most busy times of ministry as a church.  This physical issues are irritating, and a constant reminder that I am not as young as I used t be.  But serving God by serving others continues to be the thing that I get out of bed in the morning excited about doing!

Last night I watched as so many of our church members gave of themselves to serve God by serving others.  By the end of the night many of us were spent, but we still managed to hang around, joke, kid, laugh and give God the glory!  There is still much ministry to do and there will be plenty of suffering to share, but we will continue to:  “Proclaim Him…  So that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.  To this end we labor, struggling with all of His energy, which works so powerfully in us!”  Colossians 1:28-29

I look forward to seeing what God is going to teach me and accomplish in my life through the suffering today!  Oh just in case you need an up side to suffering, here is one more thought:  Have you ever noticed that when you are suffering – you are much more dependent upon God for His strength to get through? 

As we depend on Him – He will use us to bless each other and as we bless each other we will find the fulfillment that will encourage, motivate and push us forward!  God Bless & Keep It Real!