We’ve no doubt heard this before: its not what happens to us but how we respond. This is so true, but over these past few days this saying has taken on a whole new meaning for me. I’ve been reflecting on the passage from 2 Corinthians 4 where Paul says…so then death is at work in us that life may be revealed in you. Paul was constantly facing hardship, persecution even death but he saw these circumstances as times when the life of Christ was flowing through him to bring life to others.
Am I prepared to put to one side the way I want life to go and to truly say to God, I trust you to touch and bless others through anything this day brings? Can I face disappointment, illness or heartache with an expectancy that God can use this…not for me, but to bring life to others?
As I thought about this, I realised I had this kind of ‘looking right but way off the mark’ thinking.
You see, I’ve been looking at tough times as God revealing more of himself to me and he does but it’s not about me! Paul says, so death is at work in me but life is at work in you.
Could I be hit by hardship and my thoughts and prayers immediately go toward others; that God would reveal himself to them through what I’m going through?
As I ponder these things my thoughts go immediately to Pam—a member of CBBC who recently died. In those days and months of suffering could we ever count how many of us were blessed, changed, challenged by her testimony? Christians and non-Christians alike were all brought, not into the presence of Pam, but of her God!
So death was at work in her but life was truly at work in us. God’s life!
Am I prepared to step right into the ring with Paul and say, death is at work in me that life may be at work in you?