Learning to Appreciate Suffering/A Giant in the Faith

I wrote this title weeks ago, and it’s just been staring me in the face. Since today was horrible, I might as well go with it. Today was supposed to be a day of celebration, at least according to the calendar. Instead I witnessed a physical assault and received distressing messages from friends in trouble. Isn’t that life? I would hope for the most part we plan to have good days when we wake up, but then life happens. Before the new year my pastor challenged us to look at suffering as a way to build our faith. Not just the suffering, but overcoming the suffering. How many times have I cried and asked God, why me and why now? God, you know I’m being observed today, so why has my morning gotten off to a rotten start? God, you know that I’m already dealing with stress at work, so now why is home falling apart? Honestly the snowball effect of problems can feel as if they are breaking you. But here’s how I visualize the intent of the problems: to build my faith. As my pastor was challenging us, I visualized the Incredible Hulk and all of his muscles. How did he get muscles? Through weight lifting. The heavier the weights, the bigger the muscles. For believers, the bigger the weight of problems, the bigger the faith it takes to combat them. Today as I reflect on the problems around me and in my own life, I am feeling overwhelmed. But as I look back at previous problems, I can see when and where God intervened, and He is still intervening. Each win makes me stronger, and each victory increases my faith. Do I want to be a giant in the faith? Good question. Today before the craziness happened I told God that I was afraid of how fast He is moving in my life. I see it, and I think…I know I only have a tiny glimpse of what will transpire over this year. But in this one thing I am confident, my faith will be stronger than ever before as long as I keep walking with Him and allowing Him to lead me.