When God Asks You to do a Hard Thing

As often happens, I will write a title, and then come back to it after I have developed it fully in my mind. When I wrote this title, I was avoiding one difficult task and learning to embrace the second. Well over the weekend, things got real. I had been praying and asking God to give me an opportunity to mentor girls. When the opportunity came to mentor a young lady, I looked at God and said, “This is a lot harder than I expected.” Isn’t that just like God? Yes, He gave me what I prayed for because I believe He values our desire to serve others and to be a blessing, but often the answered prayer is bigger than we could ever imagine. The young lady I’m mentoring has a mother who has been diagnosed with cancer twice. Both the mother and the daughter have beautiful spirits, and my prayer is that I can be of service to both of them in a way that pleases God. But here’s how things got real. My own son has been struggling with issues, more so over the past year or so. I feel like I was blind to it until we had a serious talk, and I could really see and hear how much he was struggling. Fortunately he and I both have a strong support system, and by faith I trust that God will see him through it all. Here’s how I hope this will encourage someone. When life hits hard, our first response can be to run away, retreat, and withdraw. I am laughing to myself because I asked God probably a year or two ago for mentorship opportunities, and it has come now that my own son is fighting a battle. What am I supposed to do now? I am supposed to do what God called me to do. I am supposed to trust that He is in control and will work everything out not only for my good, but for my son, by mentee, and her mother. This is when He reminds us that we walk by faith and not by sight. This is when He challenges us to trust in Him even when we can’t see very far ahead. This is me asking you to walk this walk of faith with me. Whatever you have been called to do, do it even when it seems hard. Why? Because you aren’t doing it in your own strength and there are other people who need what you have.