For the past two weeks, we’ve been discussing the reason why we’re suffering. We learned that we undergo trials so that we could stretch, and that we could, once we overcome them, become better people.
Here are the other fruits of suffering…
4. Hardiness
Tough times create tough people.
By tough, I don’t mean angry. By tough, I mean hardiness. In other words, people who are patient and enduring. People who never give up.
The Bible says, My brothers, consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure. (James 1:2-3)
And one of the greatest gifts of having tough times is that they enlarge our comfort zone.
I’ve noticed something. There’s a direct connection between the size of a person’s comfort zone and the size of a person’s success. The person who has a small comfort zone has small success. And the person who has a large comfort zone has large success.
Let me tell you a story.
My 13-year old son Bene has a dream of raising up a new generation of Catholic worshippers. He loves to worship God and wants to infect other young people with his passion. (Craziness is in his genes.)
The only thing I don’t like about his dream is that it’s expensive. Young people love music. And to have a youth ministry, you need guitars, amps, pedals, wires, percussions, and other Thingamajigs (I can’t understand half of them) that are all expensive.
Over the last year, his poor Dad was forking out serious amounts of moolah to buy his musical equipment. Last week, for the umpteenth time, Bene said to me again, “Dad, I need to buy MORE equipment.”
In my mind, it would have been easy pull out my wallet again and give him more money. But I realized I was doing him a great disservice. If I gave him money, he would remain in his small comfort zone. So I decided to bless him in another way.
I said, “Raise the money yourself.”
You should have seen the look of disbelief in his eyes. He said, “What?”
But I was serious. Instead of giving him fish, I was going to teach him how to fish.
So that day, he wrote an elaborate solicitation package, complete with a 7-page letter plus testimony plus a response form plus other surprises.
In the last few days, he did things he never did before. He learned new skills: How to ask for help, how to write a solicitation letter, how to create a potential donors list… I taught him donor psychology and how to maintain a donor-donee relationship.
What happened to him? He enlarged his comfort zone. I’m convinced that this 13-year old will be able to raise a million pesos. But the greater miracle is that these are skills he’ll use for the rest of his ministry life.
Why did I do this? Because I realized—what if something happens to me? He’ll lose his one donor. And his youth ministry is gone. But with his skills, he can fund his ministry for the rest of his life.
Perhaps you’re like Bene. You want God to drop in your hand the miracle that you need.
But God won’t do that because your comfort zone will remain small. Instead, God will do what I did with Bene. God won’t give you a miracle, He’ll give you FACTORY of miracles. Instead of giving you a miracle, He’ll give you the ability to MANUFACTURE miracles in your life. So that you can have a miracle every day of your life.
And the unexpected fruit of suffering is…
5. Healing
Your trials can make you a Wounded Healer.
The Bible says, Blessed be the God…of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
A few years ago, my friends Benjie and Fely Santiago were under a mountain of debt. They didn’t know how to pay their credit cards—all maxed out—amounting to more than a million pesos.
But one day, they walked into my financial seminar. And they changed their life. They got out of their debt.
Today, they’re multimillionaires.
And the greatest part of the story? They now go around the Philippines and the world—Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai—helping OFW’s get out of debt as well. They’re fantastic at it. Why? Because they can show to people the old scars of their previous wounds. And people are inspired to change their financial lives too.
Like Joseph, they can say, You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. (Genesis 50:20)
Let me ask you: What are your wounds now?
Have people hurt you? Are you going through family problems? Emotional problems? Financial problems? Your problems now are giving you wounds. I want you to believe that God will heal you, and those deep wounds will just become scars. And if you allow God to use you, your scars will heal thousands.
I repeat: The greater the pullback, the greater the come back.
The sixth fruit is…
6. Holiness
In my lifetime, there were a couple of times I got depressed. You’d think that my “spiritual maturity” would exempt from these things. Ha! Think again.
Usually, I’d get depressed because of problems in ministry. I’m old enough to know when I’m depressed. Everyday, I’d feel this dark cloud over me. And when I wake up, instead of feeling refreshed, I’d feel bone-deep exhausted. And all I’d want to do is curl behind my blanket and sleep again. After forcing myself to stand up and work, by midmorning, I’d want to crawl back in bed and sleep the entire day! (Some days, I actually did that.)
At the emotional level, I just wanted to give up my ministry. I wanted to walk out and disappear. I told myself, “Can I just live an ordinary life? Can I just stay at home, not see anyone, and just love my kids?”
In my depression, I couldn’t pray very well. But I kept praying anyway. Because I had no choice. It was the only thing I could do! Pray, pray, pray, and pray some more—even when I thought nothing was happening.
And one of the few things that consoled me during my depression was the thought that I was growing closer to God.
During my crisis, I depended on God more.
I urge you to let your crisis push you towards God as well. Pray even when you don’t feel like praying. Hold on to Him and don’t let go. He will never let go of you.
May your dreams come true,
Bo Sanchez
