Life is good… until it’s not.

Life is easy… until it’s hard.

All of us realize at some point or another that things don’t always turn out the way we would hope. In fact, sometimes they turn out horribly. There is no need to get specific or give examples. Everyone reading this could share at least one experience.

We’ve written before about how confusing it can be when things that seem so right to us turn out so wrong. We’re reminded that we cannot see the road ahead. We cannot know the mind of God.

However, we can determine, to the best of our ability and strength, how we respond to the life path God has laid out for us. A seasoned mission worker once said, “You can’t control what happens to you, but you can control what happens through you.”

So how should we react when facing what is before us – today, next week, or 20 years from now?

We should receive every circumstance as an opportunity – 

…to praise God

…to glorify God

…to trust God

…to see God

…to become more like God

This does not mean that we don’t struggle or question. Job did. David did. Paul did. Even Jesus did, in the garden before his crucifixion. What this does mean is that we come out on the other side closer to God, with a better understanding of who he is and who we are in him.

Life on mission, whether in your own culture or while living and working in a different culture, is a life lived reflecting Christ in and through every circumstance. Will we do that perfectly? Of course not. Can we do better than we are doing now? Undoubtedly.

“I have learned the secret of being content in any, and every, situation… I can do all things through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:12-13