Articles
Overcoming The Droughts In Our Lives
It takes a lot of heart to overcome the droughts in our lives. It requires tenacity. It would be nice if life were just one great mountaintop experience after another. But it seems we spend as much time, if not more, in the valley, slogging it out day by day. It is those valley days that make us appreciate the mountaintop moments even more. In the valleys it seems like everyone and everything is against us. Oh, we may see a glimpse of a moment or two that are different but valley experiences, for the most part, are not that euphoric. They are just moments in which we put one foot in front of the other, and each time we do that, we feel like we are sinking deeper. It is here that we really learn lessons about ourselves. In those moments, lessons about life are imprinted.
Our character during the drought is what people will remember when the mountaintop comes. It is then that we are challenged to live by our principle, not our circumstances. It is easy to be positive when we are winning and be a pessimistic jerk when we are losing. But which will people remember? It is through adversity that we gain patience and maturity that lack nothing (James 1:2-4). It will not be easy, but it is necessary. We learn from those moments and days, and we remember them.
For example, have you ever been camping? Gone on a family trip? Just as you get your tent and campsite set up, it begins to rain. Or you just get on the road, and you have a flat tire, the radiator overheats, or the air-conditioner compressor goes and now no air-conditioning in the 100 degree heat. All the family struggles to keep their spirits high. The camping trip gets started off rough, but the family literally weathers the storm. The car is repaired, and the delay becomes a distant memory. Now, take the same trip and nothing goes wrong. Everything runs smooth. Not a single glitch the whole trip. Years later when the stories are told, which trip will be remembered? It is usually the trip that has everything go wrong. Why? Because those struggles produced something the nice smooth trip did not. Beating the storm that came and all the interruption produced a completeness that the smooth trip did not.
The thing seen by all and in everyone was the character of the person or persons involved. See, how we view adversity will define who we grow to become. I don’t know of anyone that just wants to get up a parade of adversities. That is not it. It is this: when the adversities come, what will we do and who will we be?
In those valley moments, will we remember we walk by the spirit? Will we still bear the fruit of the spirit? Will we manifest the heart and character of God that suffers long and is kind? Will we have the kind of character that is not rude, thinks no evil, nor keeps score of wrongs? A heart that is selfless rather than selfish? It is in those moments that character is manifested, revealed, and remembered.
Without struggle there is no reward. Without challenges there is no growth. Without tests there is no triumph and no stories. Without battles along the way, there is no ultimate victory.
Rickie Jenkins
