Weathering the inevitable storms

We live and lead in a fallen world, marked by sin, tragedy, and disease. When disaster strikes in the form of a health crisis, financial pressure, or a thousand other forms of pain, we are all drawn to ask, Why is this happening? Wise leaders seek a better perspective by asking a better question, Who is in control?

When we gain better perspective on our situation we can more quickly recognize life-shaping experiences and respond properly to them. God uses everything in life to prepare us for everything in life. Every experience can be used to shape our character and accelerate our development. But the reverse is also true. When we fail to recognize how God is at work and therefore fail to respond properly, our lack of perspective slows our progress.

Steve Moore

As I’ve been speaking with a close friend who is in the midst of a storm, I’ve been challenged to sit and be present with him, no counsel, no words, just presence. What words could I possibly speak to mend the situation, a situation only God can mend, not man. This has brought me to reading through the book of Job – what a challenging book!

Job experienced an incredible injustice and could not fathom a reason why it had happened to him. He sat with his friends who were saying things like: “Righteous people don’t experience suffering like this.” Accusatory statements that were defeating, not helpful. Too much is going on in my mind right now to fully write my thoughts out.

I’m realizing that the challenge of writing 40 posts in 40 days is difficult in that, I don’t have the time to allocate crafting well written blog posts currently. I think my goal will continue to get the 40 out in 40 days and then revisit each post spending a week on each one, getting my thoughts and research put together and putting out a well-written article that will hopefully help others in similar situations – that’s the goal right? To share my thoughts with the internet, opening a dialogue, so that at the end of the day ‘we’ are certain of what it is that ‘we’ believe.

Action

Comment below to let me know your thoughts on how you counsel close friends in storms. Do you speak to them in the same manner you speak to yourself? Do you speak at all? Do you believe that: “God uses everything in life to prepare us for everything in life. Every experience can be used to shape our character and accelerate our development?” How have you weathered storms before and how did it shape your character?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.