Easy Street

*Sigh*

That *sigh* pretty much sums up how I felt as I plopped down in my office chair this morning. So many things to catch up on after a crazy busy (but AMAZING) weekend. After 9 months of preparing and planning, our Women’s Ministry team, in conjunction with the Best Life Ministries team pulled off a wonderful women’s conference over the weekend. God did some incredible things during and through the conference! I was completely humbled watching all of our volunteers work so diligently on the tasks that had been assigned to them. What a privilege it is to serve with such a sincere group of people - I’m honored to call them my brothers and sisters in Christ! :)

This morning I was thinking back on this weekend and all the stories we heard from the various women of Best Life Ministries. Most of their stories were about situations God placed them in and how they were able to push through despite unbearable circumstances. Over the course of the weekend I heard various comments such as, “Wow, I don’t know how anyone could ever get over something like that”, and, “There’s no way I could handle something like that”. I started thinking more in-depth about the different situations God places us in, many of them ones we never would have imagined, both good and bad. Unfortunately, we often only remember the bad or difficult situations/circumstances.

As I was thinking back through a few difficulties I’ve faced in my own life, I was jumping around reading some different scripture passages and stumbled upon 1 Corinthians 7:17. Wow. What a powerful verse!

“Each of you should continue to live in whatever situation the Lord has placed you, and remain as you were when God first called you.”
1 Corinthians 7:17

This made me stop and really think about how our response in difficult circumstances is a reflection of our faith and our confidence in God’s ability to carry us through. Are we really that foolish to think that God doesn’t know what we’re going through or that He isn’t aware of how much our hearts are aching as we endure situations that weren’t in our “plan”? HE is the one who laid out HIS plan for us long before we were ever created. I especially loved the last part of the passage above, where it says we are to remain as we were when God first called us. What an incredible reminder that we need to stay strong, holding to the promise that our God, our Creator, knows EXACTLY what He’s doing...and our job is to remain faithful to Him no matter what!

Over the weekend I was talking to a couple of girlfriends and we were discussing how some of us have been so blessed with a life free from difficult childhoods, troubled marriages, tragedy, etc. A comment was made, “Sometimes I wonder why God has been so good to me and yet I see so many others struggling”. I’ve often felt that way about my own life - like I’ve been living on “easy street” for the majority of my life. God has been SO incredibly good to me. I had a fabulous upbringing in a wonderful Christian home with my 3 brothers, and our parents gave us a tremendous example of what a respectful, godly marriage should look like. I’ve never struggled with self-esteem issues and have always been a fairly confident person, even though I witnessed friends/peers who really struggled in this area. My college years were full of great memories and I didn’t get caught up in the partying scene that many of my friends did. I married a wonderful Christian man and we were blessed with 2 sweet kids spaced almost two years apart just as we’d hoped...I’ve been successfully running my own business for over 4 years now. So why haven’t I experienced life-altering struggles in my life like so many around me have?

That question used to really bother me....I’d hear others talk about what a life-changing day it was when they first asked Jesus to be the Lord of their life. And here I sit, with my uneventful memory of accepting Christ one night when I was about 7 or 8 after a Sunday night church service...nothing real earth-shattering. But after wondering this for many years, it’s finally become clear to me. I firmly believe that God was preparing me. He was preparing me and building me up specifically to be a mom to Peyton and all that this entails with our daily struggles. He was also preparing me to be used for His purpose, whether that be providing support for others after receiving a diagnosis for their special needs child or being a listening ear for those who are hurting. And as the scripture passage stated, I need to “remain as I was when God first called me” so that He can use me in whatever way He has planned...even if I haven’t gone through the many hardships that some around me have. In my limited mind the plan for my life may not always make sense, but I rejoice in the fact that I’m not the one who laid out this plan - HE did. Now my job is to remain faithful to Him, open and ready to be used in whatever way He sees fit.