Probably
the most significant matter I’ve learned over the last 11+ years has taken me
at least 10 years to even begin to comprehend. I thought I knew before (the
accident) that God is in every detail of our lives, I thought I knew that He
makes us into the people that we are truly meant to become; but now I know that
I had only touched the surface.
Something I’ve been able to articulate over the past week in Come Follow Me study and experienced for almost half of my life is that God does not let our suffering go to waste. He does not necessarily cause certain things to happen, but He knows that they will, and He puts the perfect people in the right place at the right time so that they have the opportunity to reach their potential.
Good things don’t always happen to good people. Sometimes really crappy things happen to good people and amazing things happen to bad people. It is often doubted, “how could an ever-loving God treat His people this way?” Let me answer that question in a seemingly controversial manner, “because God loves us.” We are meant to be antifragile.
What does antifragile mean? Antifragility is something that gets stronger when broken, damaged, or afflicted. Like muscles, they grow stronger as we tear their fibers apart exercising them. However, (as I intimately learned from being in a coma for 2 weeks) if we don’t use them, they grow so weak as to become essentially useless. People who seem to have everything may appear happy on the surface, but when looked at privately, they are never satisfied nor happy. Nevertheless, those in extremely impoverished nations are some of the happiest people in the world. While it doesn’t seem to make sense, we are created to be antifragile.
Trust me, if anyone knows the challenges of God appearing to not hear your pleas, it’s me. In “ancient” texts, you can also read about people who put their complete and total faith in the Lord and made it through, even if not in this life, such as Joseph Smith, Joseph of Egypt, Job, Christ himself, etc. They were all amazing people who struggled with enormous trials, because it made them antifragile in the best possible way. It has turned my tabernacle into a temple, it changed my mindset into “Why EXACTLY Me,” I have learned the things that matter the most, particularly the Prince of Peace.
Something I’ve been able to articulate over the past week in Come Follow Me study and experienced for almost half of my life is that God does not let our suffering go to waste. He does not necessarily cause certain things to happen, but He knows that they will, and He puts the perfect people in the right place at the right time so that they have the opportunity to reach their potential.
Good things don’t always happen to good people. Sometimes really crappy things happen to good people and amazing things happen to bad people. It is often doubted, “how could an ever-loving God treat His people this way?” Let me answer that question in a seemingly controversial manner, “because God loves us.” We are meant to be antifragile.
What does antifragile mean? Antifragility is something that gets stronger when broken, damaged, or afflicted. Like muscles, they grow stronger as we tear their fibers apart exercising them. However, (as I intimately learned from being in a coma for 2 weeks) if we don’t use them, they grow so weak as to become essentially useless. People who seem to have everything may appear happy on the surface, but when looked at privately, they are never satisfied nor happy. Nevertheless, those in extremely impoverished nations are some of the happiest people in the world. While it doesn’t seem to make sense, we are created to be antifragile.
Trust me, if anyone knows the challenges of God appearing to not hear your pleas, it’s me. In “ancient” texts, you can also read about people who put their complete and total faith in the Lord and made it through, even if not in this life, such as Joseph Smith, Joseph of Egypt, Job, Christ himself, etc. They were all amazing people who struggled with enormous trials, because it made them antifragile in the best possible way. It has turned my tabernacle into a temple, it changed my mindset into “Why EXACTLY Me,” I have learned the things that matter the most, particularly the Prince of Peace.
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