When You Don’t Like the Story God is Writing
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)
If it were up to me, I would have scripted some of life’s stories differently. So many tragedies have struck people near and dear to me that if I were the writer, they would have been changed.
Fortunately, I’m not the author, because each of these women impact thousands upon thousands of women all over the world with her powerful stories of God’s redemption. God turned their pain into purpose, their misery into ministry and their devastation into anointed messages of hope and restoration. Sudden glories fill and spill from each of their lives.
Their journeys have led them through dark valleys and back out into the light on the other side.
But if I had to decide?
My second child would not have passed away before she was born. Carol’s son would not be in prison. Linda’s daughter would not be a quadriplegic. Barbara’s daughter would not be bipolar. Patty’s 21-year-old daughter would not have been in a fatal car accident. Jennifer’s husband would not have succumbed to a brain tumor.
Difficult times are pregnant with glory moments — moments when we see God’s plan just waiting to be birthed in the lives of those willing to labor through the pain. The key is not to allow bitterness and anger to make our hearts infertile to God’s gifts.
One way to avoid the darkening of the soul is by constant communication seasoned with thanksgiving — a continual acknowledgement of God’s presence.
After my husband and I graduated from college, we moved to Charlotte so he could open a new business. But after we moved, the man who was to be his business partner changed plans.
“Sorry, Steve,” he said. “I’ve changed my mind. Good luck, son.”
I was so upset. OK, I was flat-out angry. Angry with the potential partner. Angry with God. We had prayed, fasted and felt this was where God was leading us. We had no money. No job. And school debt.
Three months later, a situation opened up that was far better than our original plan. It was Ephesians 3:20 in action: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us …”
Well, why didn’t God do that in the first place? Why didn’t He lead us directly to that second opportunity when we did all that praying and seeking? He could have.
But He is far more interested in developing our character than in doling out a life of comfort and ease. C.S. Lewis notes: “If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable. Think of it as a place of training and correction and it’s not so bad.”
That’s where Proverbs 3:5-6 comes in: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
