It’s instinct, at least for most of us. Every time we encounter adversity, our first impulse is to avoid it. We want to go around it, over it, or away from it. Anything but through it. And that impulse will usually lead us away from tremendous opportunities for change.
Somehow we have to reprogram ourselves—or let God reprogram us—to see adversity as an opportunity to overcome, to see rejection as an opportunity to love someone radically, to see setbacks as one more step toward our destiny. We have to learn to laugh in the face of the enemy, knowing that everything he throws at a person of faith will backfire. Rejected? Opposed? Snubbed? Maybe. Wounded? No. These things become food for us.
The person who is able to do that becomes invincible. The negative situations of life become things that energize you rather than things that drain you. Every obstacle lifts you higher. Every disease becomes an occasion to heal, every insult becomes a showcase for a response of divine love, every chain becomes a precursor to freedom, every moment of mourning leads to dancing, all the ashes become things of beauty, every cross becomes a redemption story. Weapons raised against you backfire.
That’s overcoming. It’s a lifestyle of rising above—and a calling to radically affect the lives of those around us. And that’s how we’re designed to live not from time to time but every single day.
For an example of crisis as catalyst, read Acts 16:16-34.
