I have this beautiful friend who posts the most encouraging and inspirational things on Facebook. One of these posts caught my eye back in September.
“Now, every time I witness a strong person, I want to know; What darkness did you conquer in your story? Mountains do not rise without an earthquake.”
I have been pondering this statement ever since, and I have found it to be true. Resilience, I find, is not something that comes naturally to people, it is something that has to be learned, without trial, without a challenge, without stress and it is almost impossible for us to grow.
Weight-bearing exercises cause our muscles stress, the act of doing these exercises tear away at the muscle fibres and they will eventually heal, resulting in stronger, tougher, more resilient muscles. I could find a plethora of analogies to prove this point, but I feel that you might already understand what I am getting at.
The strength of faith
The age old question of so many unbelievers and even some believers who are struggling with doubt is, “Why would God allow suffering?” We can call agree that when bad things happen to us, it really sucks. It is really unfair. It would take the entire chapter of a book for me to sufficiently explain why God would allow suffering. But I offer this one thought: In a broken world, we need to be broken, to know how to be strong. Not because God wants it to be this way, but it is out of necessity that we grow through trials and tribulation, otherwise this broken world, will break us to point of not being able to recover.
My thoughts are often on believers who are under intense persecution. Lives threatened, homes burned, lively hoods taken away from them, all because they refuse to denounce the name of Jesus. These people are the heroes of our faith.
A kingdom perspective
I have personally wrestled with God quite a bit over the past year, Haley and I have gone through some harrowing experiences with our twin boys, as awful as this journey has been, it has also made me who I am today. It has been a journey of faith; it has been a journey of full reliance on God and it has been a journey of understanding my own brokenness. Being broken and finding that my true strength is not in my own abilities, but rather in Jesus who inhabits my very being.
In truth I was never strong enough to endure what the past year or so has brought me. My weakness was made strong in his presence and more importantly my attitude to all that has happened has convinced me, that there is and will be a kingdom purpose for what Haley and I have been through and what my boys Nathan and Ryan have been through.
The key to my Christian walk is believing in the words of Romans chapter 8, verse 28, “And we know in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
My experiences this year have shown me that Satan will use the tragedies of life to obscure our view of God, make our faith weak by directing our anger at God and ultimately reject God. But I know my God, I know my Jesus and the truth of it all, is that there will be a kingdom purpose for the trials we go through.
If we hold on to the Lord and we trust him with everything we hold dear, he will refine us, he will strengthen us and will carry us. Our greatest testimonies come out of tragedy, our greatest victories will rise from the ashes of our brokenness and we will have a platform to preach the good news of the gospel and faithfulness of God.
Our broken world doesn’t want to hear from people who don’t know what trial and tribulation are, people who pretend to be ok, our broken world needs to hear from broken people, who are vulnerable enough to share their story of victory, restoration and redemption, because my brokenness is a better bridge for people than my pretend wholeness ever was.
Jarred is an HPE and Mathematics teacher on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, he is married to Haley and has three beautiful children Chelsea, Nathan and Ryan.