Friday, March 5, 2010

Understanding Brokenness

Recently, I have spoken with several people who are what I would describe as "on fire for God." In discovering more about their stories, the theme I noticed is that each individual had experienced the pain of brokenness and come through it with the attitude that God was preparing them for greater things.

When we experience brokenness, whether it is caused by our own doing or not, we have basically two options. We can embrace it and grow in our faith in the Lord, or we can grow angry and double our efforts at trying to control life on our own. In my experience, the path of finding joy in suffering yields spiritual growth, while the path of more control leads to more frustration. It is hard for God to speak to us when we believe that we have everything under control.

How do you respond to life's difficulties? Do you try to grow from tough times, or do you frantically try to fix the problems on your own?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Bryan

Well, I don't need to rehearse my story for you. But the one take away that I would give you (and you've heard me say it many times) is that we need to not just accept our circumstances, but truly, fully embrace them. After all, if we serve a loving, sovereign God who not only allows but ordains our suffering to make us more Christ-like, how can we do anything else?

John V