If you’re like me, you hate transition or change. Actually, I love change when it benefits me, makes me more money, or brings some sort of blessing. What I hate is the time period where you are in-between where you were and where you want to be. It’s miserable, agonizing and will most certainly stretch you for all your worth. As my father-in-law says so well, “It will most certainly test your metal.” Consider the story from the book of Luke below….

²² Now on one of those days Jesus and His disciples got into a boat, and He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they launched out. ²³ But as they were sailing along He fell asleep; and a fierce gale of wind descended on the lake, and they began to be swamped and to be in danger. ²⁴ They came to Jesus and woke Him up, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And He got up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm. ²⁵ And He said to them, “Where is your faith?” They were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?”  Luke 8:22-25

As was true in the above story, it’s when we endeavor to go to the other side of infidelity that we not only find difficulty and resistance, but what the text calls ‘fierce gales of wind’ which seem only to frustrate us, humiliate us and reveal what’s truly going on inside of us. Most of what we find inside when we’re out of control is far more dark than light, and introduces us to a deeper level of darkness in ourselves. When we feel we are sinking or ‘perishing,’ we very easily panic. I know for sure I do. We’re looking for something, or someone to hold on to. If there was ever a time in our lives when we felt as though we deserved some sense of grace or mercy and for circumstances to be easier, it would be now.

Nevertheless, it’s when we encounter a season of change or transition that things almost never go as planned. I’m awed by the fact that Jesus, aware of the fierce storm, stands and says to them (upon simply speaking to the storm) “Where is your faith?” Another translation says “Why don’t you trust me?”

For me, I think I have an extremely hard time trusting, or believing, when I can’t see the outcome I want. In reality, I want our journey to be easy. I very wrongly and pridefully believe I deserve things to be easy. I want life without bumps, without resistance. I want to be in control of it and to have it be somewhat predictable.

Recovery is usually far from predictable, and forces us to realize we do not have the power in and of ourselves to make circumstances bow their knee to our human dominion. If they did, we’d probably screw them up even more than we already have, and rest assured, if we are in control, we cannot be trusted. I truly believe we have to allow recovery to run its course, holding on to the fact that we have a God who controls storms simply by speaking to them. We also have the opportunity to find a boat which will carry us to the other side, if we will stay in it and trust it. That boat is a proven curriculum and approach you’ll find here at Affair Recovery.  

Perhaps the whole time in the boat, Jesus wanted them to cry out to Him? Maybe he wanted them to keep sailing, and realize He had it all under control, and to fix their eyes on what the other side was going to look like and feel like?

I don’t know, but I know he wouldn’t have allowed the boat, the storm, or had even called them to go to the other side if he didn’t want to get them there.

Good Growth in any area of your life doesn't just happen. YOU have to force growth by embracing resistance. Everything grows but not everything grows better. You have the power to FORCE Good Growth. Do the hard things in life and you will get to live. Do the easy things in life and you will simply survive.