Opportunity for growth…

This week has brought everything together for me.  I have been able to look back and reflect on some of the hard times of my life and see how they have affected me as a man.

I can see how the death of my father led me into a downward spiral due to my decisions at the time.  I chose not to care about anything and live in the moment.  I chose to use alcohol as an escape from the reality of my life.  I also chose to run away from God and that was probably the biggest mistake I made back then. 

I have had other tough seasons in my life, but the loss of my son 2 years ago was the biggest. This time I chose to run TOWARDS God.  I chose to pray about my troubles and feelings.  I chose to not retreat into the shadows and be alone, instead I decided I would get plugged into a community of wiser men than me and learn. 

I’m not saying that everyday was great and I had no bad times, I sure did and still do.  I can say that I am in a much better place overall because of it though. Choosing to run towards God and towards community has made the biggest impact on me.  The book of James says it perfectly.

“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”   James 1:2-4 NLT

There are many ways we can look at this passage, but what jumps out to me is that in the tough times, we get to see God work. When things are good, we tend to think we have everything under control and do not need anything from God.  You might not feel that way, but I am guilty of this time and time again. 

It is my belief that God does not give us bad things in our lives to test us.  I simply believe we live in a broken world and bad times are unfortunately part of it.  I have seen in my life that if I choose to focus on my faith and not on the problem in front of me, I am more at peace and things end up working out, even if it is not in the way I wanted it to.

The tough times build us into who we are.  That is the biggest times of growth in our lives.  We can choose to either better ourselves or not, but either way those tough times change us.  It is your choice what that change will be.  Make the best choice you can!