I think more than anything else, it is the hardship, it is the difficulty, it is the dead-end street that shapes us.

It is the trial that occurs that makes us into the individuals God wants us to be (if the attitude is right and the learning is still on a willing curve).

It’s how we react, how we respond to the pains and the struggles.

For some, it’s . . .

• Bankruptcies
• Injustice committed against us
• Disappointments
• Criticisms

And sometimes even the divorce that just rocked us back on our heels, turns us around, gets our attention . . . and puts us into an orbit we would never have otherwise entered.

My short thought this week, brothers, is that it wasn’t the things I planned or the things I had hoped for in life, but it was the serendipities—the results of those surprises that leveled me—and turned my life in the direction God wanted it to go.

I wouldn’t trade how old I am or the experiences I’ve gone through or the heartaches and disappointments I’ve endured. Nor should you. Because all of it has worked together in God’s plan.

—Chuck