Have you ever said to yourself, “I don’t know how I am going to get through this?” I’m sure we have all said that many times whether it has been the death of a loved one, a failed marriage, health issues, an ugly ministry situation, etc. And although we have thought we couldn’t get through the situation, God did see us through and we have lived to tell the story.
There is a book I would like to recommend to you that I believe every pastor and spouse should have in their library. I know I wish I had read it many years ago before going through some trying situations in ministry. The book is by Max Lucado, You’ll Get Through This. Here is the description of this great read:
“Joseph’s pit came in the form of a cistern. Yours came in the form of a diagnosis, a foster home, or a traumatic injury.
Joseph was thrown into a hole and despised. And you? Thrown into an unemployment line and forgotten, into a divorce and betrayed, into a bed and abused. The pit. Life is reduced to one quest: to get out and never get hurt again. Not simply done. Pits have no easy exit.
Joseph’s story got worse before it got better. Abandonment led to enslavement, entrapment, and imprisonment. He was sucker-punched. Sold out. Mistreated. People made promises only to break them. Offered gifts only to take them. If hurt is a swampland, then Joseph was sentenced to a life of hard labor in the Everglades.
Yet he never gave up. Bitterness never staked its claim. Anger never metastasized into hatred. His heart never hardened; resolve never vanished. He not only survived; he thrived. By the end of his life, Joseph was the second most powerful man of his generation. His life offers this lesson: in God’s hands, intended evil becomes ultimate good.
Joseph would be the first to tell you, life in the pit stinks. Yet, for all its rottenness, doesn’t the pit do this much? It forces you to look upward. Someone from up there must come down here and give you a hand. God did for Joseph.
And at the right time, in the right way, he will do the same for you.”
We can learn a lot from the story of Joseph and I pray this book will be an encouragement to you no matter where you find yourself in life. I pray as you have gone through storms you, like Joseph, have chosen to grow through the situation not just go through it and have allowed God to keep your heart soft instead of allowing it to harden.
Many times when life throws us a curve ball, we want to take the easy road and get angry and bitter, but I pray you have and will, continue to choose allowing God to do a work in your life through the challenge and you will come out on the other end a stronger person and use the trial to minister to others.
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