Nobody likes going through hard times.
Losing your job stinks.
Losing a cherished relationship stinks.
Losing a physical capability — even temporarily — stinks.
Gaining a chronic illness stinks.
Gaining an abrasive, morally insensitive co-worker stinks, particularly when his or her desk is adjacent to yours.
The list could go on, of course.
But in each stinky situation there is the opportunity for a sticky lesson.
And that’s why God allows stinky situations to enter our lives.
He has a purpose for the stink because He has a lesson that needs to stick.
It’s not that He hasn’t tried to teach us lessons without the stink.
It’s just that too many times we haven’t listened.
If we always sought Him and His will with every breath, every thought and every action, we wouldn’t need refinement.
But we haven’t.
And so we do.
Need the refinement, that is.
As impure ore needs the fire.
In the midst of pain or frustration — or both — look for the opportunity to trust God more and serve others more.
You just might end up doing some very important things that can impact others’ lives in a marvelous way.
Check out today’s Old Testament section in the reading for the day from the One-Year Bible. You’ll read of how a really stinky experience for a guy named Joseph actually became an incredibly sticky lesson that God used to preserve the promise that the Messiah would eventually come from the line of Abraham.
It’s an amazing story of how a rotten, evil choice of others ultimately led to a redemptive, godly rescue of others.
All because of a faith-based commitment to honoring God even in the midst of horrible circumstances.
None of the parties involved in the story forgot the lessons, I’m sure.
Let’s do our best to look for sticky lessons even in the midst of stinky circumstances.
It’s the godly thing to do.
As always, I love you
Martin
