Why can’t things be different?
Have you ever asked yourself this question? Sure you have. And there’s a reason why you’ve asked this question.
The reason is because something in your life is not the way you’d like it to be, and your desire is for it to be different.
This question can present itself in a number of different areas of life. For some it might be in the area of relationships. For others, it could be in the area of career and finances.
The church I pastor is called Harvest Church. My wife and I actually started this church in 2007. We had big dreams and plans. But after the first five years, things were not where we wanted them to be. We were asking ourselves the question, “Why can’t things be different?”
To give some context, the school we met in would no longer renew our annual lease. At the same time, we had been working on a building project that was not coming together at all.
I remember giving our church this update on March 17, 2013, and concluding by saying, “But God has not forgotten about us! We will have church in April, even though I don’t know where it will be!”
To be honest, I said these words because it seemed like the right thing to say, not because I really believed it.
Unfortunately, that difficult day was not yet over. After having lunch with the vice chairman of our church board, I began to feel sick. Severe abdominal pain, like I had never experienced before, began to settle in. And what began that night was my first of many hospital stays, this first one lasting two weeks.
This road has now included seven surgeries across four different hospitals and two states. Two weeks ago, I was back in the hospital for several days. All that to say, the journey is not yet over.
I have often found myself asking the question, “Why can’t things be different?” I’m trying to do the right things in life. I want to serve God, be a good husband and father, and help others.
But what I’ve come to discover is that there are some things in life that can only happen through difficult times. Gold is refined in the fire.
Without fully realizing it, God has used this difficult season, where I’ve wanted things to be different in my life and that of our church, to accomplish some great things. Personally, I’ve grown much deeper in my relationship with God and have learned to trust Him at greater levels.
During the past five years since this challenging time began, we also discovered that God truly did have other plans for our church. We’ve been able to purchase and renovate a building (across from Indianapolis Regional Airport.) Our shrinking church has now more than doubled in size.
As I reflect on the good that has come out of adversity, I no longer ask the question, “Why can’t things be different?” The question I ask now is, “Why would I want things to be different?” While the journey has been tough, the destination has been beyond my wildest expectations.
In life, you just might discover what God is up to in those moments when you find yourself asking the question, “Why can’t things be different?”
Brad LeRoy is lead pastor at Harvest Church in Mt. Comfort. This weekly column is written by local clergy members.
