Five Minute Friday: "Purpose" v. 2.0

When we had this same word four years ago, I was still struggling to crawl out of one of the lowest points in my life.  I was honest--if not pessimistic--with what I was facing.  I felt depressed, old, and done.  I had no idea that a few months after that post, God was going to totally rock my world and start pointing me more toward my purpose. 

One of the sayings of Celebrate Recovery is "God never wastes a hurt."  I know that my being a Christian does not shield me from pain, but gives me answers, comfort, and/or deliverance within it (Psalm 34:18-20).  The one thing I didn't want was for my pain to have no purpose.  It reminds me of a story Dan Miller told in 48 Days to the Work You Love (I think I'm remembering this right. It might have been Dave Ramsey or John Maxwell who told this story.  Hey at least I remembered the story. 😎).  He relayed a story about a company hiring a group of men to dig a hole, then fill it back in again.  They paid them a great wage, by the end of the experiment--which was only a few days--everyone had quit.  Why?  Even though the work paid well, it had no purpose.  God's deliverance and provision are awesome in the midst of pain, but I don't want my pain to have no purpose; to just be a digging and refilling of the same miserable hole ad nauseam.  I want how I handle pain to bring glory to God, and hopefully prevent someone else from making the same bad choices I made.

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In case you missed it:  

* My last Five Minute Friday post "From" is here.
* My last Wednesday Hodgepodge post, "Age is a Social Construct," is here.
* My last Simple Woman's Daybook post "A Buggy Full of Lemons," is here.
* My latest 2021 Flip and Sip Reading Challenge review of Love Does is here.
* My latest Auntie's Workshop post "Finishing and Fixing III" is here.