Let it gRoW…

This weekend, the guys and I had the privilege to worship with the kind folks from Germantown, TN. It’s always fun for us to get to be in the setting where we are two steps from the entire crowd and can really get to know names and faces. This weekend had a them running through it though – not the ‘planned’ theme, but a them that seemed to be connecting everyone together, no matter the age, background or ethnicity…

trial, testing, hard choices… you see the theme?

In getting to really talk with a few folks there, everyone came from a different place: ‘Why did you get to live, and why did my mom die?’ ‘I’m struggling with my family…’ ‘I’m praying that others see my heart…’ Listening and processing the Word this weekend, it was amazing to see where these amazing people were being pushed, and where I was being pushed by  just listening to them.

I’ve heard so many of these statements this past week – and NOT just from this weekend either. I have a dear friend of this ministry who’s community has lost seven students in the last month. Seven. 7. How do we function when all of this is happening around us or even to us?

For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

SO LET IT GROW, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

James 1:3-4

God’s ways are higher (Isaiah 55:9). We may not always understand. But understanding isn’t always the goal of our faith. Sometimes it’s got to be perseverance. Fortitude. The willingness to rise to the occasion, not in our own strength, but in the Power that shines through in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).

So what’s going on with you? Where does it hurt? Where are you being pulled? Let it GROW. Let your endurance grow. Knowing that this life is nothing but a chance to share the Hope within us. It’s a chance to point others to Jesus, the One who enables us to walk – though sometimes only a step, we move forward, none the less. Let it GROW.