Hardship or Opportunity?

broken legThe sound was like a 2×4 breaking in two. It reverberated across the entire soccer pitch commanding the attention of players and spectators alike. The game came to an abrupt halt.

I lay on the ground writhing in pain aghast at what my leg looked like. My right lower leg was bent at a right angle. My tibia was completely snapped in half and my fibula was snapped into thirds by two breaks. Three clean breaks meant that my lower shin and foot flopped around like a rag doll as I rolled around on the ground in agony.

When I hit the ground I clearly heard the Lord say to me, “I did this. I’m with you.”

It was third year university and I was playing soccer. It’s tough to say what really happened other than it appears when I attempted to clear the ball out of our zone an opposing player put his foot on the other side of the ball. All the force of my kick went back into my leg and it shattered.

The break was so violent it nearly severed the nerve to my foot. The broken bones along with the nervous damage made for some intense pain. The bones were very unstable and had to be set three times. My leg was casted for 2 months when we discovered it was healing crooked.

The orthopedic surgeon then rebroke my leg, took a bone graft from my hip, and bolted a surgical steel plate up the length of my shin. The plate was left in for 2 years then taken out. I had to stay off it for another year. In all the process took about 3 years. My leg works great now though.

The most painful part of the ordeal ended up not being the breaks, it was the nervous damage caused by the breaks. Have you ever really smacked your funny bone and experienced the intense nervous pain in your hand and arm? That was what my foot felt like.

It was very tough.

In the midst of the pain and discomfort I remember crying out to the Lord that I didn’t want to miss what He wanted to say to me and do in my life. He told me to calm down and know that I couldn’t miss what He was doing as long as I Ieaned into Him and rested in Him.

He had invited me into a hardship that was an opportunity to grow in Him; to know Him in new ways. He did something in my heart that could not have happened any other way. He was tenderizing my heart and teaching me to trust in Him and not in my own strength.

I had a choice: would I see this solely as a hardship, or would I see it as an opportunity to know Him?

I believe this is one of life’s key choices: will we see difficulties, trouble, sorrow, loss, sickness, and pain simply as hardship we want to get out of, or will we see it as opportunity to know the Lord?

Do we ask the Lord to get us out, or do we ask the Lord to help us find Him in it?

Anne has a very close friend who for decades has suffered through a life threatening sickness that has caused her much pain, discomfort and inconvenience – exceedingly more difficult than my simple broken leg. Has she sought healing? Yes. However, the Lord has not healed her yet. Is she bitter and angry in her hardship? No. She has discovered Jesus in the midst of it.

She has transitioned from hardship to opportunity. She is a powerful testimony to a heart yielded to God, walking in the intimacy of His grace in the midst of the pain.

Are you facing an emotional, spiritual, or physical hardship? Are you getting lost in anger or resentment, or hopelessness, or sadness? I would encourage you to shift your perspective to see this as an opportunity to discover Jesus and His grace and love.

It is oftentimes in the midst of our deepest hardship where we discover the sweetest intimacy with Jesus. Hardship is our opportunity to know Him.

Romans 8:28

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Romans 8:38, 39

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,

neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,

neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 8:17

“Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”

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