Growing Pains

The Christian "journey" is fraught with incredible opportunities for growth. They just don't look like what we expected. The challenges that we constantly face, force us to flex our spiritual muscles and sometimes stretch us to just within breaking point. But the results of lifting weights and exercising is always good for us no matter how painful the experience at the time. So it is with the trials we face in our Christian walk. I'm discovering that everything has its antithesis. Where there is opportunity for love, there is opportunity for hurt. When betrayal comes what do you do? Get out? Get angry? Get even? You have to deal with it some way. How? Observe how Jesus saw Judas. Jesus response to him as he (Judas) walked up to Him in the Garden of Gethsemane with the temple guards, "Friend, do what you came to do."

Friend!?!?!? How? Why? I have a million questions about that one, and you probably do to. But He is our example on how to navigate through not only the smooth portions of the road we're traveling but also the treacherous stretches too. Sometimes the betrayal comes from the most unexpected quarters but the source of the hurt has no bearing on your response. The opportunity to demonstrate God's love is never contingent on the circumstance or potential recipient of that sometimes elusive characteristic of God's nature. What opportunities for growth have you had recently? How did you respond in the midst of your trial?