Close Enough to Know Your Struggles

Tonight I met a church acquaintance for dinner. I say "acquaintance" because even though I've known this person for a few years now, we've never gotten past the superficial "hellos" and "how are yous" that you say to everyone every Sunday morning...until tonight. I needed this person's opinion/ help with an event at church, so we decided to meet for dinner. Two hours later, we had not only discussed the business of the dinner meeting, but some of our deepest thoughts and spiritual insights! What a God-ordained meeting! What started out as a simple dinner to discuss an idea, became a larger, divine moment for both of us. I learned so much from just a few hours of fellowship with a person that I didn't ever expect to become close to. In expressing our own thoughts and spiritual struggles, we were able to minister to each other! It was awesome how my struggles addressed issues in her life and her struggles addressed issues in mine.

I learned tonight that whatever difficult circumstances you go through, there is always a way to use that problem for the good of someone else. Our lives are so much bigger than our own feelings! Our struggles are not just our own; they are meant to teach a greater lesson to those around us!

Are you close enough to someone today to KNOW their struggles? Can you learn from the people around you--from their mistakes and from their spiritual struggles? If there is NO ONE in your life that you can learn from, then you need more close relationship in your life. And if you are going through something today, share it with another person! You never know when that moment of disclosure could help someone else with their personal struggle.