Our Greatest Tragedy Can Be Our Greatest Triumph!

The darkest, most distressed, depressed, miserable, time of my life was what God used as the foundation to lay the blocks of change to my life that gives me the solid rock faith that I have in God today.

Loosing all that I had that had any material worth was what taught me that a simple life was far more important than anything that the material world could offer.

My marriage breakup, taught me that I had done many things wrong in the past because I knew no better. I chose the wrong woman, and I did it for the wrong reasons, and I got many things wrong. Today I am much wiser about marriage and how important that it really is.

I made mistakes with my children and I learned a lot from that as well.

They say that for many of us that God has to bring us to our knees and then, and only then (because of pride, stubbornness that the world gave us) we finally learn to trust God and regrow under His protective wise guidance.

I felt that I was too old to go through that, I didn’t want to suffer, I didn’t deserve the pain I thought, I didn’t want to start all over again. And I felt that at that age I deserved more respect (even from God) and that I had earned all my material gain so I didn’t want to lose it. But I lost everything and for some time even my own sanity to some degree. But from the depths of hell we can grow to become the strongest workers for God. We all just have to look beyond the square that society has taught us and then we become aware that God is really there.

I remember back then, 10 years ago, on my knees in the closet with a towel to cry on, crying for hours, while begging God to please stop the suffering that was happening to me and tearing my whole life and my mind apart.

Now I can see why “I needed the suffering to become new” – All my pride, society taught beliefs, bad and wrong opinions etc all had to be driven from me, and then new feelings, thoughts, and understandings put in my mind to replace them.

This was the worst experience that I have ever had to deal with and it went for some years, the final result was a better person who could be used to help people. And I am so happy with so little, I enjoy basic foods, I barely need any money and my needs and wants are so small. I see women for what they really are and do not see them as sex objects to be abused for pleasure etc.

The Potter works on the broken pieces to put together a new person.

But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

And sometimes we must go through a torturous regrowing and then we can be used for God’s purpose to help others.

Isaiah Chapter 48, verse 10 Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.

So you see, the greatest bad times can be the times that knock us off our perch and bring us closer to God, and in that time we learn that people and love are more important than the material world.

All the best from

James M Sandbrook.
29th of November, 2014.