How do you respond to trouble?

Someone else gets selected for the job you wanted. You struggle with troubles while others seem to easily succeed? Or you get a bad medical diagnosis.

You have two responses. One is emotional. The other is spiritual.

Your emotional response might be to feel hurt and cheated. So you thrash around, mutter under your breath, and then you express how “It’s so unfair!” Next you grieve, and finally you end up in a place of acceptance.

Acceptance is a wonderful emotional place and tool. In the spiritual realm you also have power tools. They include submission, faith, and contentment.

• Jesus said, “Father, not my will but yours.”
• Paul said, “I have learned to be content.”
• Proverbs states, “trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. ”

Why this matters

You will face challenges. How will you respond?

In 1932 Reinhold Niebuhr used the spiritual tool of prayer and the emotional tool of acceptance together in a prayer. Allow me to close with his prayer.

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Reinhold Niebuhr

God bless you as you face your challenges today. What tools will you use in response?  Amen.