Finding God's Grace in Every Challenge and Adversity

Finding God’s Grace in 

Every Challenge and Adversity

“There is no failure in God!”  The spiritual and gospel song by that title often sets a congregation ablaze with affirmation, praise and excitement.  Most disciples assent to this spiritual maxim.  Living in the will of Almighty God inherently means that one cannot fail.  Yet, the question remains, “What do you do when things do not work out?”  How do you respond when challenge and adversity seemingly conspire to derail your God given dreams and goals?  How does one resolve negative circumstances that spew forth like the relentless, destructive, merciless and annihilating lava of a fomenting volcano?  Bewilderment is the natural reaction for the child of God who finds himself or herself in such a situation after he or she carefully confirmed that God led him or her in this direction.  Does God set us up for failure and then sadistically laughs at our humiliation in the process?  Consider the book of Job and his self-righteous indictment of the will of God in Job’s predicament.  Nevertheless, the eternal attributes of Almighty God and His unquestionable faithfulness (Lamentations 3:22-23) in every scenario substantiates the foregoing saying.  They further explain the continual chorus of “Amens” to the idea, “There is no failure in God!”

In his phenomenal and recently renowned lecture, “The Last Lecture,” Professor Paul Rausch, in discussing successful methods for actualizing one’s dreams, speaks consistently about the necessity of responding appropriately to the “Brick Walls” of life.  A Computer Science Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA until last fall, Dr. Rausch recently discovered that he is dying from an incurable form of pancreatic cancer.  Invited to give his very last lecture, Professor Rausch shared intimately from his personal experience of pursuing his five heartfelt childhood dreams.  In the process, he encountered several brick walls.  Ironically, he utilized that occasion to reveal for the first item publicly that initially he had been denied admission to the doctoral program at Carnegie Mellon; eventually, he became one of the most distinguished and popular members of the faculty.  Nonetheless, he persevered beyond that brick wall.  Professor Rausch posits that we encounter brick walls to determine whether we really want what we say that we want.  Further, he says that brick walls separate the people who possess heartfelt dreams from those persons who merely had a fleeting thought.

In spiritual and biblical terms, brick walls afford us the opportunity to pause and renew our commitment to the necessity of inner spiritual transformation and the practice of spiritual discipline.  I reiterate the seven practices of SPAMBID: self-evaluation, prayer, affirmation of the Word of God, meditation, Bible study, imaging a new and triumphant life, and daily quiet time.  Admittedly, this is not an exhaustive list.  Most assuredly, it is not meant to comprise a full-proof formula.  Rather, it portends a suggested method of strengthening one’s relationship with our Lord as one humbly, earnestly, and diligently seeks His guidance in the face of challenge and adversity.  Put quite simply, brick walls enable us to find the grace of Almighty God in everyday life.