First, I am amazed at how often I am deceived into believing that God has departed from me when trials or suffering arrives on my doorstep. This is an immature notion of my relationship with God. When I understand who God is (as much as my puny mind can comprehend) and see the story from His script, I know that God would use any circumstances and experiences in my life to achieve His purposes. This includes, along with the blessings of enrichment, pain, suffering, humiliation and even death. The decision before me is, am I willing to subject myself to God’s story regardless of how He may choose to use me. It comes down to 2 critical elements. Trust and obedience. Will I trust Him and will I obey Him? Second, I see how much I have been focused on the search for what my role in the story is. I tend to have this illusion that my role is more central or important than is really true. I am learning that my calling is to first get a sense of “the big picture” and then proceed from there. In other words, it’s not about me. I have not been created to be blessed, to enjoy all that God has created and to discover and fulfill my vocation. It’s not about me. It is not my story. This is totally and completely God’s story to unfold of which I am a small but significant part. But even in that I must understand and embrace the reality that my significance has nothing to do with my personality, my character or what I do and don’t do. Any significance I have is completely tied to and created by what Jesus did on the cross at Calvary.