How do you handle problems?

At the risk of getting too churchy on you all, I wanted to post about something I heard today that I found both interesting and comforting. It really made me think about life and why things happen the way they do ... so read on, k?





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So, the church Andi and I go to features 'sermon series' every few weeks where we review various sections of the Bible. Sometimes there's a tie to the time of year (ie: Christmas) or other times it's just walking through different books of the Bible and talking about how it applies to our lives. We started a new series today in the book of James and specifically talked about problems, and how we react to them.

We all have problems, right? We worry about health, or money, or fertility, or loneliness or whatever - ultimately we all have times where things just don't seem to be going our way. And when things don't go our way, we often ask God "why is this happening to me?" ... "am I not a good enough person?" ... "what did I do wrong to deserve this?"  James:1 tells us problems are inevitable. They happen to everyone and the only thing you can plan on the fact that life is unpredictable.  But we also take comfort in knowing that God only gives you as much as you can handle. And there's a reason He's giving you this challenge: to better develop your character. God can take the biggest challenge in our lives, give us strength to get through it and then make us better for having experienced it. And, ultimately, we shouldn't ask God "why is this happening to me?" but "what do you want me to learn from this experience?" ... "what are you trying to teach me?"  All we can do is pray and trust in our faith.

A little heavy for a Sunday post? Maybe. But I felt so comforted hearing this message. Life's bigger than what's happening today, what problems or challenges we might be facing. Tomorrow's another day and a better, brighter one at that. Thank God for that!