I had a conversation this week with a lady who has lived through a difficult, yet amazing life: three miscarriages, cancer, bankruptcy, the death of one of her children, and the death of her husband.
She was very calm as she recounted her hardships, and she was very gracious in allowing me to ask her such questions. At one point she looked at me, smiled, and with tears in her eyes said, “These questions are tough. But hearing myself tell you these things sort of shocks me. I can’t believe this was my life. I can’t believe how God has allowed me to overcome such trials and to see my story redeemed. It feels like it should be someone else, like someone on Oprah or something.” We both chuckled.
Then I asked her this:
“How’d you do it? How’d you get through? With every valley that life threw at you, and with every circumstance that tried to drag you down, how’d you cope?”
“Finally!” she laughed, “You’re finally giving me something easy to answer.”
She said three sentences I will never forget.
I refused to acknowledge doubt.
I refused to entertain hopelessness.
I refused to fall into self-pity.
The day after our conversation I read 1 Corinthians 13:12-13 and her story was confirmed through scripture.
“We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.”
So to quote my friend, I leave you with three “easy” solutions to help you filter your present life complications:
Refuse to acknowledge doubt.
Refuse to entertain hopelessness.
Refuse to fall into self-pity.
Or as 1 Corinthians puts it:
Trust steadily in God.
Hope unswervingly.
Love extravagantly.
