What Do You Have To Gain In Hard Places?

I have a mind blowing revelation for you:

Life. Is. Hard.

Shocker, right?

There aren’t just hard moments, days, weeks. Sometimes you’re stuck in a cycle of hard months, hard years. You feel trapped in hard places.

Maybe you’re trapped there now.

So what do you have to gain?

You can either let the hard place conquer your soul, and escape it barely alive. OR, you can lean in, and choose to grow against all odds.

One of the most perspective shifting questions I have asked myself over the past year is, “What do I have to gain from this?”

What can you gain from a season of loneliness? A better understanding of yourself? A renewed intimacy with Christ?

How can you grow as a person through a difficult and discouraging season at work? Can you walk away with a more patient heart? Better conflict resolution skills? A set of skills that will be of great value in your next workplace?

Where does growth occur in the midst of loss and heartache? Can you gain open eyes that are grateful for every single blessing God has placed in your life? A heart that loves the people you still have surrounding you with renewed intensity?

If we let the hard places break us, we will always be broken because they will always persist as long as we are on this planet and not at home with God. But, if we choose to realize that God is good, He is for us, and that He has something for us in every place we walk through, we are able to not only survive, but grow.

What hard place or thing are you walking through right now? What do you have to gain from it? Rejoice and be glad that our God enables us to walk through even the worst hardship and come out stronger on the other side.

After all, fire refines.