“You’ll Get Through This” – Max Lucado

You’ll get through this. It won’t be painless. It won’t be quick. But God will use this mess for good. In the meantime don’t be foolish or naïve. But don’t despair either. With God’s help you will get through this.

Max Lucado, You’ll Get Through This

Sometimes I’m not very good at being compassionate. It isn’t who I am. I try, I have worked on it and, over the years, God has grown me, but it still isn’t my default. I’m more of a suck-it-up kind of guy.

But it’s important to remember where others are at, and where we are at ourselves, when difficulties and struggles come, and we all have difficulties and struggle from time to time. Marriage is hard and often painful. Finances can cause extraordinary stress. Things break: cars, houses, computers, bones. Nature happens: storms, tornados, earthquakes, viruses. People get sick. We get sick. Sometimes, loved ones die.

“Suck it up” doesn’t work when those things happen. Not for others, and not for ourselves. We need to grieve and process. Grief isn’t just something we do when someone dies, its something we do when we realize something has changed, when something we held onto is lost. And grief is complicated. It involves pain, anger, confusion, and denial.

When we are struggling, we need help. Counseling is good-no one should ever feel any shame or embarrassment for asking for help. Wisdom is also good. For myself, I look for people that have strengths where I have weaknesses, and I look to them for wisdom and counsel.

That is what led me to Max Lucado’s book You’ll Get Through This. Lucado’s writing is wise, gentle, compassionate, and full of the truth of scripture.

Compassion matters to God. This is the time for service, not self-centeredness. Cancel the pity party. Love the people God brings to you.

Max Lucado, You’ll Get Through This

In You’ll Get Through This, Lucado uses the story of Joseph from the book of Genesis to speak to pain and suffering and how we can process our difficult times and come out the other side, a lesson we all need sometimes.

Different struggles bring out different thoughts, questions and emotions, but Lucado highlights scriptural and practical principles that apply to suffering across the board. Questions like, “where is God when I’m suffering,” “how can God allow this to happen,” and “will this ever end?”

Whether you are struggling through something now or not, this book is a good encouragement on how to approach difficult times and come through them stronger. It also serves as a good reminder that God is always in control, and the end result of every struggle will be future blessings.

God hasn’t forgotten you. Just the opposite. He has chosen to train you…Dismiss the notion that God does not see your struggle. On the contrary, God is fully engaged. He sees the needs of tomorrow and, accordingly, uses your circumstances to create the test of today.

Max Lucado, You’ll Get Through This