No matter where you turn you will be faced with a decision; you can accept the life lesson God has in front of you or you can ignore it. Warning: If you haven’t figured it out yet, if you ignore it chances are you’ll have to face a repeat until you surrender and change. God is pretty good at making sure you come out of the process refined and a “learned student.”
Our lessons come in all shapes and sizes. They come in forms of annoying co-workers, disobedient children, angry drivers, impatient spouses and the list can go on for eternity.
So why does this happen? In my personal experience if my lessons were on repeat it was usually because I failed to respond in a way that proved to God I had cruised through it with flying colors. In those moments God is concerned with how we respond. It is tempting at times to point the finger and say, “hey God did you not notice how incredibly rude that lady was to me?” So maybe someone was rude, maybe that co-worker isn’t the finest individual, maybe you didn’t deserve that hurt or pain but the lessons are in the responses.
In my case, as CEO of Idol Inc. and Home, my employees come in the form of demanding little people I call my precious children. Apparently I haven’t succeeded too well in the area of patience because this is a lesson I’m dealing with on a daily basis. As a parent I’m sure I will face this until the day I die, but in the tough moments when I want to yell and spank out of anger I need to step back and think about my response. Were my children out of line or am I grumpy by self-infliction due to a late night marathon on television? On a number of occasions it has been either one or both of those. Stop, reflect, and respond to the lesson.
Life is filled with these opportunities of growth.
In my early 20s I used to volunteer with this other young guy. We had to work together a lot. We organized events and managed teams of people and for the life of me I could not stand working with him. Every time we were assigned someone to work with he was my partner. It wasn’t until one day I finally asked God why was I always put on this guy’s path. In that moment where I was clearly right and this other person was annoyingly wrong (so I thought) God’s response was shocking to me. You will work with him until you let go of your pride, humble yourself, and realize you have something to learn from him. Ouch! Once I did that our gatherings with one another seemed more pleasant. I realized I was the problem. The verse in Proverbs 27:17 was loud and clear, "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another."
God is on a mission to mold and shape us to be more like him. We will never be perfect on this Earth but we are challenged to be a light, make a difference, be imitators of Christ, be a lesson to someone else, or learn a lesson from someone else. So the next time you see a life lesson coming your way take a deep breath and ask God to teach you something through it. May your response be the shock and awe factor that brings others to be mesmerized by what or WHO it is that makes you different.
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