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There’s an upside to the downside.

Don’t get me wrong:  I’m neither the gripe-aholic pessimist NOR the naive sunshine-pumping optimist.    The half-emptiness or half-fullness of the glass depends on how thirsty you are, I suppose.  Either pour out what you don’t want, or fill it up.  I believe we don’t have to be defined by what life “hands us.”   We are instead defined by what we believe so sincerely that it turns into action.  And by how creative we allow our perspective to become.  When life “hands me” lemons, … why not cut them and squeeze them on my grilled shrimp?

With that in mind, all of us need to have some pre-formed responses to the suckier parts of life.  And since none of us are exempt from the suckosphere, those responses need to be realistic and biblically informed.   Here’s some things I’ve discovered lately.  My prayer is that God will use at least some of them when there’s something bitter in your glass.

• Conflict is inevitable. So is disappointment.  And strained relationships.  Even disaster.  What shapes us is our response to them.  Do we lose sight of God?  Or look for God in the midst of it.
• A recent time of testing revealed something to me:  Difficulty makes me more desperate for God. Uncertainty pushes me deeper into the Bible.  Jolts to my confidence shift my confidence more to the power and providence of God.  Loneliness drives me into the arms of God through prayer.
• It’s the whole “When I am weak, I am strong” thing.  (2 Cor.12:10)
• It’s the realization that we can – in some way – celebrate the crappy times because “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope…” (Romans 2:3-4)

So today I thanked God for the way He uses circumstances I wouldn’t have chosen.  I proclaimed to Him my trust in Him.  I canceled all invitations to my own pity-party.  I drank a whole full glass of suck-it-up.  And it tasted very good.  I highly recommend it.