Like I said in my recent article, the day God met me on the beach was the day the vice grip of depression finally started to release.

We all like it when God does a quick work, the pick-up-your-bed-and-walk kind of moment. 

I wanted a one-and-done healing, I thought I was through with depression. I was wrong.

Despite my breakthrough, I was still in a very broken place. That’s when Tiffany, my wife, said I should meet with Dave Blanchard.

I wanted to be done with depression, Dave showed me how to, as he so often said, “Fall in love with the journey.”

Why does that matter? Because often we become who we are meant to be not in a moment, but in the slow forging of our character over a long time. 

The Forging Fire

As Dave often says, “Your character is forged in the furnace of adversity.”

We basically have two ways to look at the trials of our life: obstacles or opportunities.

With God all obstacles become opportunities.  

As you begin to focus your life toward your God-given purpose you begin to see how adversity is helping you. 

Your pain has a purpose in the hands of God. There is wisdom to glean from our hardest moments. That wisdom will become someone else’s breakthrough.

When you see how the wisdom that came from your pain has helped someone else it’s all worth it. 

As Dave has said, “The only people with credibility to walk out onto the ledge and talk others off it are those who have been there themselves.”

I thought that my depression was a liability when in fact it was my credibility.

We are forged in the furnace of our weakest moments.

Partner with Power

Our weakness is what allows us to partner with a power greater than ourselves. Because we are weak we get to partner with God. 

Partnership is key.

As Dave puts it, “God can’t drive a parked car.” 

It can be tempting to think that you can’t partner with God until you get out of your funk: just park the car and wait until you are more qualified.

That’s missing the point. 

So often in the Bible, God is looking for a willing person to stand with God, warts and all, and say, “I’m willing to partner with the great I Am.”

In fact, weakness is the secret weapon of spiritual success.

As Paul the Apostle put it, “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

Take the car out of park and watch what God can do. 

When we partner with God (even in our mess), letting pain be part of the purpose, our obstacles will become opportunities and our weaknesses strengths.

The good news is this: the pain in your life hasn’t postponed your purpose, it’s prepared you!