I once listened to a sermon about life being easy.

The priest compared it to sitting in an armchair contentedly watching life and getting by.

The years I lived a comfortable life I won’t lie – like many, I thought I had just made smart, non-impulsive choices.

I had figured out the riddle.

I had outsmarted life.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Those just weren’t my growth years. 

I think I would compare it to childhood. There are so very many great years and they all kind of blur together. And then there are the adolescent growth spurts.

The uncomfortable moments meant to shape us.

Everyone has challenges.

They just come in different shapes and sizes and at different times. And of course, what follows is how we choose to handle them. I personally, was tenacious. A fighter. A skill I learned from a tremendously strong mother who wasn’t afforded the luxury of giving up. Unfortunately, I used that attribute to attempt to save my relationship and there wasn’t much left by the time I filed for divorce.

I fought God while he was seeking my attention.

And I couldn’t be happier to leave these last five years in the past.

Yet I am grateful to now know the first lesson I learned when God got my attention was had I (a reformed enabler) walked away earlier I may not have been so vulnerable these past five years. The second lesson I learned is no one escapes heartache.

And the third is a simple gratitude for all the suffering because it ultimately woke me up personally, emotionally, and spiritually.

3 Ways God Gets Our Attention

Mistakes

Our Mistakes force self-examination.

That is if we let them.

If we choose self-reflection and what we can learn from them over beating ourselves up or ignoring them. 

Of course, some mistakes are small but others can cause the loss of relationships, jobs, etc. and can be truly devastating.

Mistakes can turn into great opportunities to learn something about ourselves, improve ourselves or even take us towards a new opportunity.

Heartache

The heart sustains us, therefore, when it hemorrhages it can be difficult to stop the emotional bleeding. 

Eventually, we must force ourselves to heal and accept what our heart has had to let go.

Some of which we will never understand.

The turmoil of the heart can be attributed to loss, divorce, break-ups, caregiving, worry over family members and so much more.

When the heart aches it searches for God.

And this can bring us to a deeper spirituality and an acceptance of a new and yet unknown path.

Change

We are hesitant to accept change.

Despite the fact, change can often be the impetus for great new things.

And we are especially resistant when we are forced to make unwanted changes in our lives. Perhaps we must move for a new job, downsize our lives due to financial stresses or leave a relationship, just to name a few.

There is a comfort in the known but God’s plan is to make us uncomfortable at times.

If not, we wouldn’t push ourselves to experience new things or those which place us outside of our comfort zones.

 

God will get our attention.

He will elevate us personally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Some of it we will come to understand and embrace and some of it we will be forced to accept for reasons unknown to us.

They are our spiritual growth years.

 

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