I remember when I was really young being angry about the most inconsequential things. Bumps in the road during car drives would frustrate me immensely. I would literally shout at my dad every time we hit some sort of bump which, being in Africa, happened regularly. I remember blaming the wall when I fell into it and having an angry tirade when I stepped on a bee. It’s hilarious now to look back and see how worked up I became. But it also highlights a very important lesson when it comes to our life.
There are elements of life that can get you worked up and get you frustrated. It’s easy to use up all of your energy on inanimate things that have no specific malicious intent. As a result, you will find yourself more tired and upset, while the world carries on blissfully unaware. Deciding what I allow to drain me emotionally is a sign of maturity. I could still be going around blaming everything around me for my emotions, or I can allow them to do something way more meaningful.
Broken but still standing
I have had a good number of ‘knocks’ since my early days. As a young boy, I was abused and bullied in school. My creative abilities didn’t fit in with my very traditional surrounding, therefore I was alienated and shut out. I was extremely insecure – resulting in depression during university. I have watched my mom struggle with being blind my whole life. Our family has walked through her having cancer, complications from the operations, brain tumours and other medical struggles to this very day. I lived two years without any income – unable to buy my next meal, let alone pay off big student loans. I don’t say these things for pity but rather to point out that I now find myself stronger and more full of faith because of these situations.
How else could our souls be tempered and purified? What else could grow and strengthen us? In what other ways could we be made effective in our purpose?
Keep walking
The only way we have any authority in this life is by allowing Jesus to shine through our brokenness. I stand on the other side of many of these ‘knocks’ I have experienced and I know God better for them. In my desperation is where I found him. I was sustained and encouraged by relating to him in times when that was the only lifeline I had. Not only that, but I get to encourage others – hopefully you included – that there is life beyond your pain. But the only way you get stronger. The only way you make this suffering ‘worth it’. Is by finding Jesus in the chaos of it. And then walking through it.
I have seen how the hardest moments in my life have become the most precious. I am seeing more and more how God is using me to speak into the very situations that I had to go through. But if I gave up, I wouldn’t be as strong as I am today. In every crisis, it has been an opportunity to know Jesus in a deeper way. The more we experience how frail this life is, the more we discover Jesus shining through those cracks and fault lines.
This too shall pass
Every struggle is temporal. Jesus said that we would go through trouble. But he has overcome the world. He is on the other side of it. Whatever pain you are experiencing right now – whether it be a stubbed toe or a decade-old depression – it will end. And every second is one step closer to wholeness when you know Jesus. Do not retreat in your transition towards strength. Jesus knows what he is doing. He cares more about you than you could care about yourself.
If you would like to know him in this capacity, I would like to encourage you to click on the link below. This relationship with Jesus is the only thing – the only thing – that has brought me through to today. He is real. He loves you specifically. The most powerful thing you could do, is look to him for help; and when you do, you will find so much more.