By: Jackie Warner
We all go through trials in our life and have often heard that Life is our best experience teacher. I totally agree. If you live in this life long enough, you will truly be taught some hard, and many times harsh, lessons. Some because we choose not to adhere to others who had been down the same path, and those lessons we just have to learn because it is what God intended to make us stronger. James 1:2-3 says: My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
A number of the tribulations we must bear make us feel as if we will never recover, we are broken and have no way of regaining or knowing the life we once knew. It is hard to accept it, but thus the intent of the lesson!
What we take from these lessons is how we learn to move forward and allow what has happened to us to help others as they endure similar hardships of life. Make no mistake, I know this is difficult to do and to even think about when we are going through devastation in our lives. We say, “I can’t think about others right now, I need to take care of me;” and, yes, of course, we do at that very moment in our lives. You must first start with self and realize that you are not “broken”- far from it – but only “bent.” Being in a state of “bentness” requires you to be flexible and move beyond your comfort zone; it requires you to endure and withstand your condition for longer than you feel you are capable of doing. It takes great strength and long suffering to realize when we are bent, twisted, turned around, up-rooted from the foundations in life, and that HEALING IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE.
You may be asking how you can move from being bent. Just remember as you are going through your trials to read 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 – We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; It is ultimately what we choose to do next that will help us to move forward. I truly believe that during the times we feel broken we have lost sight of who has really been keeping us connected the whole time while in these states of depression, bleakness, and emptiness.
In order to get back, there is some work to be done. That work involves drawing closer to the True Vine. In John 15:5 we read: I (Christ) am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. We will see ourselves become straighter and our actions much clearer when we realize, believe, and trust in the one who is really sustaining us in this life.
Weathering life’s storms is more physically and mentally possible when we are bendable and willing to humble ourselves to allow Christ to be our true guide.
