You never know what you have until you lose it...

What do you do when tragedy strikes? When you get that pink slip at work and your boss tells you that they appreciate everything you have done for them but they no longer need you anymore. Or you get your results back from the Dr. and you get told that you have cancer or someone you love gets that bad news? How do you prepare for a situation like that? What can you do to make yourself ready for such sudden change and immediate shift in thought? I heard a saying from my pastor Keith Craft that goes,"You never know what you think until you see what you say." You never know what you will do until it happens and you see how you react or what you will say to your boss when they tell you that they no longer need you there at the office anymore. You never know how you will react until the Dr. tells you or your loved one that they have cancer and you find yourself asking the question WHY? That's the question that tells us all more about ourselves in 1 moment than everything leading up to that moment in time. How you deal with the WHY question shows you what you are made of and what your life stands on. If you can stand there in your office as you clean it out or stand in that Dr's office after the devastating news and not be bitter or mad and not blame anyone for what is happening you learn something about yourself that you would never have known. Or if you get angry or depressed then you also learn something about yourself and you realize that your whole life as you knew it wasn't reality. Basing your life on a job or financial security will ultimately disappoint you because you can't control what goes on around you at all times. Everyone loses a job at some point in time and everyone knows someone who gets an awful disease or has to go through one themselves but you can't prepare yourself for that trauma or set ahead of time what you will say and do. You can make all the plans you want but in the end you have no control what will happen and if your expectations and your happiness is based on security then you will not be able to move forward and you will be crippled by the loss.
This is where faith enters the picture. This is where faith takes center stage and begins it's beautiful solo performance in the lives of it's owners. Without faith in God and His divine grace and power, at the moment of trauma when the cards come falling down, if you are without faith then you are without hope and the world becomes a black hole of despair. Uncertainty has it's benefits and it's hard consequences depending on how much faith you have in yourself and in God. Uncertainty can be a place of freedom or feel like you were just dropped out in the middle of the ocean at midnight without a life jacket. As Christians we were never created to lead a completely comfortable lifestyle on this earth. Comfort and stability can breed a life of stagnation and can puff up a man's pride in himself and give a man a false sense security. Being too comfortable can cause a man to relax to the point where he loses his passion for adventure and trades living life to the fullest for the pursuit of maintaining stability where he currently is in life. Everybody loses a job at one point in time or another and everybody goes through the loss of a loved one; sometimes it takes things like this to make us realize that nothing ever stays the same and that the pursuit of stability is a futile game. Change is all around us, it's waiting in the wings in our blind spot at all times without our even knowing it. We wake up every morning the same way with the days activities on our minds, knowing the daily routine we have grown so accustomed to is about to start and the schedule that we set yesterday for today is about to be set free. We all know that tragedy is always around the corner in the back of our minds yet we push it back and suppress it, never giving it any thought. Fear is a weakness that must not be given a foothold in our minds less we live in a constant state of dread for fear of calamity looming in the darkness waiting to jump out and choke us to the ground at any given time. We have seen it in the lives of people all around us; people who have lost loved ones to diseases or sudden tragedy like a car accident or divorce or job loss. These things are written about in thousands of books and portrayed in movies everyday; American's love of the theater and entertainment stems from the obsession with drama and the feeling you get from seeing someone be broken down by an unseen force and watch as they pick themselves up and cope with the trauma or lose their minds and destroy themselves and everyone in their path along with them. Our minds are filled with these images of movies and novels yet when the tragedy happens to us we act like we never saw it coming and that we never could have prepared for such an awful thing because we never thought it would happen to us. The truth is people love to watch a drama unfold but when the drama is their life some people just can't handle it because they don't have the strength of character or the faith to get through it or past it.
From faith stems hope; it's the only place you can find it. It is grown through difficult times not sunny carefree days of luxury and leisure. Faith is the unseen part of a person's character that is the X factor when it comes to matters such as these that we have been talking about. It is the only thing that, when tragedy strikes in your life, will give you the hope necessary to pick yourself back up again and begin to move forward. Faith gives you the courage needed to face your fears and to give comfort to those around you that are going through dark times as well. Faith can't be bought but it can be borrowed and it can be given away to others; sharing your faith with someone who is struggling can be the best gift they have ever received. One of our greatest faults is that we live our lives like nothing bad is ever going to happen and we do everything in our power to control situations to prevent change from occurring. We have our hopes and dreams set on eventually retiring from the workforce and leading a happy life doing nothing or rather not having anybody tell us what we have to do. The goal of most Americans is to retire at 60-65 and just rest in front of a TV or travel the world without any responsibility to have to work anymore. That is the goal that the "world" has set forth and everybody believes is what will ultimately make them happy; financial security is the key to a happy life they say and that is what people spend their whole lives trying to accomplish yet few people ever reach that goal. The point is that you will never be secure or shielded from the possibility of something tragic happening, it's inevitable that tragedy will strike in your life or in someone's life very close to you and you will have to deal with it whether you want to or not. If you put your trust in financial security or your health or any other worldly thing you will be disappointed because all of these things can be taken away from you and you have no control over if and when it happens.
The saying goes you never know what you have until you lose it. I lost my job this week and it is one of the most difficult things that has ever happened to me because I now have a son who just turned 6 months today and a wife who were both counting on me to provide for them financially and to provide health insurance for them in case anything were to happen. In the tough economic climate of 2009 and with the rate of unemployment higher than it has been in decades it would be very easy for me to go crazy with worry and despair but I have something that most people don't have. I have the X-factor or in this case it would be called the F-factor; the Faith Factor that gives me the strength to stand tall and to tell my family with confidence that everything is going to be ok. In fact everything is going to better than it was before because we have the God of the Universe on our side and if He is for us who can be against us? We are trusting God to provide like He always has and we are thanking Him for what He is going to do for us. We know that His timing is perfect and that He has a plan for our lives, a plan that we cannot see or fathom but I know that He is making our paths straight for us and He is leading us to a place that we could not have gotten to on our own. Sometimes change is something that we have to be pushed into because we are so determined to stay in our comfort zone that it takes being Fired from your job to get you outside on the road again where God can lead you to the place that He has been preparing for you all along. I learned that one of the definitions of Passion is taking something that could hurt you the most and turning it into the thing that can help you the most. Losing a job can be the best thing that has ever happened to me because I know that God created me for great things and that He is leading me to the exact place at the exact moment in time where He is going to use me for Mighty Works and I am believing that in Jesus' name because I know I am a son of the Most High God and His hand of favor and blessing is on my life.
So when tragedy strikes, and that's a When not an If, you must have the faith that everything happens for a reason and that God is orchestrating His master plan to bring you to a place where He is going to bless you and make you prosper more than you could where you were before. If you don't have that faith right now ask God for it, and if you don't have a relationship with God start one because He has been waiting to hear from you since you were born and He is ready to forgive you and give you everything you need. Just like an earthly father has love for his son and gives him everything he needs so your Heavenly Father will give you everything you need and He already knows what you need all you have to do is ask Him for it and believe that He will provide. I thank God today for the faith that He has given me in my heart and the ability to look past a time that could stress me out and break me down knowing that He is already working out a plan to bring me to the BEST that He has in store for me and that's what I want more than anything. I know you have to walk through the valley to get to the mountain top and that there is always a valley in between each mountain so I expect to go through another tough time again in the future; but with each valley you gain wisdom and strengthen your faith which makes you stronger for the next valley and next situation that comes along. Life is a roller-coaster ride in the sense that you are always going up one side to get down the other and you never stay in one place forever so to try to make being comfortable and secure within your own man made boundaries is futile and you will only be disappointed. Put your faith in God and no matter what happens in your life or in another person's life you will have the courage to face it with your head held high and the faith to believe that something better is coming. If you put your faith in God you will realize that everything you need you already have and all the other things are just possessions that can and will be replaced in time. You will realize that you are blessed beyond your imagination and nothing can take away the joy you have in your heart and the love you feel from being a son or daughter of the Most High God. This life is but a vapor in the wind, a grain of sand on a beach and a passing breeze on a hot summers day. It is all here today and gone tomorrow. Make your treasure something that will last for eternity, put your faith in God and watch as He transforms your life into something bigger than yourself and your physical needs. You were put here for a purpose and if you are living your life according to God's will He will always provide for you and give you everything you need to accomplish His purposes He set forth before the beginning of time.
Maybe you need to rethink what's really important in this life...

God's blessings for you and your family. Remember you are a son or daughter of the Mighty God of the Universe; nothing is too big for Him all you have to do is just ask Him and He will answer you if you believe.