Fridays with Phil

Your challenge could be your chance.
Your problem, your possibility.
Your trial, your testimony.

If that’s to be the case, you must decide how you are going to face life challenges.

The reason I believe many of us don’t see the chance, possibility or testimony in the midst of challenges is because we do not expect challenges to happen and when they do, we are rocked, surprised and even confused.

Instead, embrace the reality of challenge – it is part of life’s experience.

A kind person will encounter meanness.
A healthy body will need care.
A strong marriage will face struggles.

There will be bad in the good days and good in the bad days.

How can we face and overcome life challenges?

Firstly, don’t be in denial, avoiding the proverbial “elephant in the room,” acting as if a challenge does not exist.

Instead, actively move to face and deal with challenges, just like God did.

Ever since the Garden of Eden, Eve’s apple and Adam’s sin of silence, the world has been different to its initial intent.  I would say this represented a huge challenge. But, what do we see God doing?

In Genesis 3:9, the Bible says “But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?””

God immediately faced the problem.

God stepped into the situation, seeking out Adam and Eve, He dealt with the problem, and came up with a redemptive solution.

God did not wait for the problem to resolve itself.  In the same way, we need to be proactive about facing and solving challenges.

Secondly, this means that we bring truth to our challenges and we take ownership of them.

Shifting blame does not help solve problems. Mature people are not as concerned about who is at fault as they are about solving the problem. Even if they didn’t cause the mess, they will take ownership of the result and get busy to fix it.

God did not cause the fall of the earth. But, He put his arms around the problem and sent a Saviour.

A parent with a child who is not doing well at school will not just blame the teacher or the school. He or she will care about the problem and take ownership of it to help solve it.

Do you have a challenge today? The easy way around it is to pretend it doesn’t exist or blame someone else for it. But how I see it, there are two options: easy first, hard later, or hard first, easy later.

God’s way is to face the problem now, and thrive in the end.

I’m taking that option.

Phil