I grew up in church, but I didn’t understand that God is real and in our day-to-day. I spent my days and weeks sitting in a pew, but I didn’t have a concept of Him working in my life. To me, he was just up in heaven.. watching and waiting.
As a teenager I was asked to join a group on a mission trip to Russia. It sounded exciting, so I went.
On the plane trip to Russia I became ill and as each day passed, I got more and more sick. My team took me to the local hospital in Dubna, Russia, and I spent just about the entire time there laying in a hospital bed in a foreign country.
Although I was unable to do much to help our team in forming relationships or set out to work on our plan of reaching the people there in Dubna, God wasted nothing.
Through my time spent in the hospital, my church gained new partnerships with this hospital, forming new ways to reach and love on the people of Dubna.
For the first time in my life, I felt that my life had purpose and meaning. I could sense that the Lord would take anything we had to offer, even a sickness, and use it to make something beautiful.
As you walk through disappointments or frustrations, look around. Take a look, and wait until you see what God is doing.
What others mean to you as evil, God promises to use for good. He wastes nothing. —Chuck Swindoll
(Genesis 50:19-20)
Jacob's Ladder 