Your Trials Are Your Testimony

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. - 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

A few years back, I was sitting on the couch in my living room talking to my roommate Lauren. She was checking in with me, asking how I was holding up, since I had just gone through a pretty awful breakup. I told her that I was struggling, not just because being heartbroken hurts terribly, but because I never even saw the breakup coming. I was so completely blindsided, and that made everything so much worse.

Lauren sat there and listened to me talk, and then she said something I’ll always remember. She said,

“Kristen, you might not want to hear this right now. It might even sound cheesy, so you can take it or leave it. But you might have a daughter one day who’s going to be really grateful that her mom knows what it’s like to be blindsided by a breakup so that when she goes through something similar, she knows she can talk to you about it.”

I’ll never forget Lauren saying that because she’s so right. I had been so wrapped up in how the breakup was affecting me that I hadn’t even considered how God might use this to help someone else. Sure, it could be my daughter if I’m lucky enough to have a daughter one day. But it could also be one of my friends. It could be my little sister. It could be one of my podcast listeners. Or it could be you. I don’t know. But what an amazing gift it is to think that God could use something so terrible and hurtful as a heartbreak, not only to grow me but to impact someone else who could be going through the same thing.

Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever considered that the pain and the brokenness you’re walking through might not just be for you?

This is the part of our stories where can find hope. We can see that the work God is doing in us might just be bigger than us. He might be guiding you down this path so that you can help someone else who will one day have to walk this path too. And the purpose behind Him mending your brokenness might just be so that you can be a part of someone else’s mending story.