How Can I Honor God Through This?

Unfortunate circumstances. Let’s be honest… they “suck” when they happen to us. It can be so easy to tell someone else, “Oh, I’m so sorry!”, when something bad happens to them.  But when it happens to us, it’s a whole ‘nother ballgame.

If we breathe, if we live, we WILL go through unfortunate and perplexing circumstances. We WILL have things happen to us that don’t make sense, and have us questioning, “Why?”

Oh, how I hate those times.

I recently experienced one of those circumstances. I tried to think on the “positive.” I tried to hope for a miracle, or some sort of solution… because when I thought about the situation too intensely, tears would come quickly to my eyes. What might have been gone forever – was irreplaceable. And it meant so much, not just to me, but to numerous people.

I kept asking myself, “How can I honor God through this?” I wanted to do right by Him. I wanted to hold myself accountable for how I responded.  If the “worst” I feared, truly came about – how was I going to handle it in a way that brought God glory? EVEN though I, myself, might be hurting?

That is a big question.

It’s so easy to act on emotion. It’s so easy to blame others. It’s so easy to let hurt turn into anger.

It’s so hard to “let it go.”

What’s done is done. I can’t change some things. They are unfair. They hurt.  But they happen. And in the process of them, I can acknowledge how they make me feel, while still holding myself with honor and integrity. I can still muster up grace.

I don’t ever want to be a doormat for others.  I don’t want to be a victim time, and time again. I do, however, want to have a strength from the things that happen to me, that allow me to rise above them. I want to represent my faith and my Lord WELL.

So, those unfortunate circumstances will come. I will never welcome them. But I will endure them, and hopefully, will be better off from them.

You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result. Genesis 50:20 (NASB)