James 1:3 – “Know this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience…”
There is that place in our lives that every man comes to, when it seems that your life seems to have come to a standstill. It may not be everything about your life, it may just be an experience that shocks your life to its roots.
It could be the loss of a job, a loved one, disastrous heart break, heart rending disappointment, financial crisis, life threatening disease or simply a phase in your where everything you touch seems to wither.
Whatever the case that experience can be likened to a dark period of your life where your face has taken the place of your feet on the ground. Face down, you have been humbled beyond what you thought possible and the whiff of life’s thrills seem beyond your grasp. It is said that “he that is down fears no fall,” it is true; for he that is down fears that he may not rise again…
There is something worse than a wilderness experience, the loss of hope. The loss of desire to reach, to stretch, to dream. Your dreams and hopes are the key with which you will open your cage and set destiny free.
It is in the wilderness that every man is formed, whether to remain a prisoner of life or to come out a victor. It is the failure of every man that in the long run will determine his success. There are things that the wilderness will teach you that success will not. And if you pay close enough attention, failure will not have to repeat that same lesson when you have reached the peak of your success.
There is a blessing that only pain can give; it can be in form of wisdom, or true friendships, clarity of purpose, inner strength, depth, passion or unshakeable confidence when another challenge occurs.
This is what I call the blessing of the wilderness experience.
Maximise your pain, learn the lessons and you will come out stronger, wiser and more mature.
Cheers to a stronger you!