The Thing
GUEST BLOGGER: Shirley Andersen
The thing you are going through right now isn’t what your world is all about. It’s all about what you do when you get through the thing you are going through now.
That may be a very strange statement, but let me give you my interpretation of it.
We’re all here for different reasons, different jobs, and different callings.
If we have given our life to God to be used in His service just as “ordinary people” (not someone called by God into full time service…like a Pastor), then we should be active in church. There should be daily prayer and Bible Study.
Many people my age (60s) may have gone to church for years and now feel as though they have done enough and want to let the younger ones do the work. I don’t believe that is the right attitude. Maybe they don’t want change and they’re comfortable with just Sunday morning worshiping until next Sunday.
Having lost my father when I was 12 showed me that life is short with no promise of tomorrow. Through the course of life you get busy and forget some of the things we should be doing because life gets in the way.
You wake up one morning 52 years later and your husband of 40 years has just passed away from a battle with cancer (I’ll admit I stayed too long in my sorrow).
But then I woke up one morning and during my devotion time I read 2 Corinthians 1:4:
“Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”
I know I needed to do more for the Lord. Stop thinking someone else will do it. Stop saying: “I’ll just sit in my house content until next Sunday, dust my Bible off and go back and sit in my place.”
Some people my age may be content with that lifestyle but again… “It’s all about what you do when you get through the thing you are going through.”
Then the verse says we can comfort others by learning from the times we were comforted by God. Everything we go through in life is an experiences we can use to help or comfort others. Stop feeling like you’re too old or you don’t want to change anything about your life.
I love helping others. I love changing my routine. I love never knowing what will happen if I just step out in faith.
I may be a widow but I don’t have to act like one.
I get my strength daily from God, even today as I find myself battling Breast Cancer. Some say how strong I am, NO. God isn’t putting me through what he thinks I can handle, NO. I can handle nothing day to day without getting strength from God daily…even hourly if needed.
It’s all God, not me.
However, I want people to see God in me. I want to help comfort others because God comforted me. I want to use what I’ve learned by going through my own trials. Job 14:14 says one day we will all be changed.
In this new year of 2022, we are still striving just to get through ‘it.’ As I started, it’s not just getting through this latest thing, but it’s what you do when you get through the thing. Will you be the same or will you change for the better while serving God?