Has that ever happened to you? When these events happened, they seemed utterly dire, and they were when they were happening, but looking back, I can give thanks that they occurred. They led me—no, sometimes they forced me—to do things that I have always been grateful I have done.
Do not think that I have met these events with serene faith. I have not. I may have met them with prayer, but also I met them with a lot of fear and anger. I believe that God means life to be joyous, not a sad experience, and I do not believe there is any virtue in accepting suffering willingly.
Life is not meant to be easy. It is meant to be great. To be great, we have to live greatly. To live greatly, we have to find great new powers. To find great new powers, we have to grow. One unqualified truth about life: Life is meant for growth.
We human beings have the human spirit of God in us and that is a magnificent spirit. If you have ever climbed a mountain, you know that above the timberline where sun and wind are so fierce that even the rocks are shattered and powdered, beautiful flowers bloom in the crevices between the bare rocks. We human beings are like those flowers. We are meant for the heights, and we have powers in us we do not know we have. We can survive and grow and bloom above the timberline.
The human spirit of God can stand when the whole world around us falls apart. It can find a way when there seems to be no way. It can rise out of the ruins of its life and build anew.
I pray that you will never give up praying for the good, for you may find that what seemed lost may yet be found, what seemed failure may yet turn into success, and what seemed hopeless may yet contain good you could not see was there.
Are you dealing with unexpected change in your life?
We invite you to listen to Beyond Life's Changing Circumstances, an audio meditation based on the popular book Finding Yourself in Transition by Rev. Robert Brumet (written and read by the author).
