Wrangling With Adversity … Hello Hump Day readers. I have a question for you all: “what does adversity mean to you?” It’s a word that we don’t here very often but that word worms into our lives daily! In Webster’s dictionary it is “a state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune.” The world, alas, is full of adversity of all kinds, from misfortune to outright calamity. With our economy today, may people are tanking, wondering where the next dollar will come for food, medicine, housing, etc. Here’s a true short story from Somerset Maugham about diversity and a clever way to turn it around. Enjoy!

There was a janitor at St. Peter’s Church in London. It was discovered one day that this janitor was illiterate—a fact he had concealed for some time. So instead of helping him, the young vicar of the church fired him, even though his work was excellent. Sadly, he was now jobless but he decided this adversity wasn’t going to take him down. So, he invested his meager savings in a small tobacco shop where he began to prosper. He opened another shop and then another, until he finally had a chain of tobacco stores that made him very rich. One day while looking over his finances, his banker, knowing he still could not read or write said: “Can you imagine where you’d be if only you could read and write?” The man chuckled and replied “I’d be the janitor at St. Peter’s Church.”

Adversity plays a part in almost every big success story because it’s not until we’re faced with tough times that we learn, grow, and find ways to move forward rather than stew in our adversity and do nothing. For those of us who are followers of Jesus, we have adversity just as anyone else but there is one thing we do have, the faith in God to get through it. When hard times often drive us to our knees in desperation we hang on knowing that in God’s provision, we will see the light at the end of the tunnel.

In 1 Peter 5:8-11 using the Message translation, the Apostle Peter gives us these uplifting words that we need and should memorize as well: “Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The Devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Keep your guard up. You’re not the only ones plunged into these hard times. It’s the same with Christians all over the world. So keep a firm grip on the faith. The suffering won’t last forever. It won’t be long before this generous God who has great plans for us in Christ—eternal and glorious plans they are! — will have you put together and on your feet for good. He gets the last word; yes, he does!”

So instead of seeing our hardships as a curse, we can treat them as an opportunity to learn and grow—just as the janitor did. This might sound crazy, but if we would let God use adversity to shape and mold us into a more devoted and mature follower of Christ, just what would our lives be like? I think it would be a whole lot better—we would have a stronger faith in God, a stronger mind-set as we go through life, and a whole lot less of worry and the best of all, a lot more peace.

Let’s challenge ourselves by asking God to help us see our hard times as opportunities to learn and grow with Him. Let’s lay down the things we are holding on to that are more of an adversity than something good. Let’s take a different direction about what we think and what we do. Adversity will still be there with us, but the path we walk with God will give us the directions we need! AMEN.