#1 Reason--Faith Against the Odds

 A motivated person will plan her life. Meticulous individuals may write down many hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly goals. Such a person might even use calendars, apps, and programs to manage their every objective.

On the other hand, what can we do when our path isn’t so clear and life becomes complicated? At some point, most humans come to realize the futility of trying to control every aspect of their existence. See if you can relate to some or all of the following examples:

• People don’t act according to our desires. 
• The weather doesn’t cooperate. 
• Family tragedy occurs. 
• Chronic illness continues to slow us down. 
• That project still isn’t finished. 
• The promotion at work fell through. 
• A terrible crime is perpetrated against us, or loved ones. 
• Debt, or addiction, is still sticking to us like glue. 
• Society grows more disrespectful daily. 
• An unexpected death, or medical emergency, takes place.

I realize that the above list is only partial. The potential setbacks in everyone’s lives might take hundreds of hours to type and read. Life isn’t perfect; neither are we. Nobody said life was fair, either. In that case, does an alternative path exist during the inevitable times when, frankly, life sucks?

  

The Solution

Where do we turn, then, when we can barely see the next stair above us, let alone the top of the staircase? There is only one direction to go, a single place to cast our eyes: Heaven.

God is the flashlight in the middle of the dark room. He is the sole pinprick of light in the middle of a shadowy, confused world.

Today, I am drawing attention to Carol Graham, a fellow author. She is a woman of incredible faith. Mrs. Graham has refused to accept countless failures and setbacks in the journey to her current success. What follows is my review of her detailed memoir, Battered Hope:

Whatever you’ve got going on, you can overcome! That’s the unbelievably empowering theme of this book. The author bravely—and humbly—references numerous trials in her life, including the following: the deaths of loved ones, trusting the wrong people, chronic illness, and multiple car accidents.

Initially, I was hesitant to read this story because I knew it was a no-holds-barred memoir of the writer’s complicated life. I figured it would hit too close to home for me due to the trauma in my life. However, Ms. Graham’s message is not “Woe is me; there is no hope!” Her theme is closer to the biblical “This too shall pass.”

The author doesn’t leave us in the dark. This is the story of believing in that one pinprick of light amid the acres of shadows. It’s a tale of faith against the odds and step-by-step living. Some of Carol’s trials were brought about by her own poor decisions while others were not.  However, the underlying theme remains the same: trust God.

I highly recommend the book for that message alone! We all need such reminders to boost our faith!

My Conclusion

 Our existence is often unpredictable and intimidating. Joy and peace cannot always be found in our circumstances as we may have little power over them. That’s why we must have faith enough to look beyond present trauma. Only God can lead us to the one beacon of light in a topsy-turvy world.

How strong is your faith?