Learning to Love Being Where You Hate Being

With only a few exceptions it is possible to develop in our journey with God from the position we despise to a position of love and appreciation for the same situation.

The sceptic must be catered for, however. The sceptic will scoff. They will dismiss it out of hand. You may be the sceptic. But consider the advantages of doing something, quite impossible, through the power of God, to transform a seemingly impossible situation to your benefit.

What is there to lose in trying?

Only where we have been where we hate being can we appreciate the need for transformation, where our situations would encounter a metamorphosis so we could see them through.

Only where we have been somewhere intolerable, where anxiousness took its toll on the rest of our lives, and where we may have no other choice but to stay, will we begin to appreciate the need to make the situation better.

What Opportunities Is God Providing In the Hellish Situation?

With some breathing space for contemplation, where we may foresee the purposes of God out of what seems hellish, we are able to conjure some plans for adapting.

As we improvise within our present despicable circumstance, and consider all our options for adapting, we encourage the innovative juices of our creativity to get to work; to pave the way of the way out.

But the way out is not out. The way out is a paradox. The way out may not be to find a way out, but to find a way of loving a situation we have grown to hate. What sounds ridiculous is possible with God.

How are we to do this? Well, there must be some foundation for compassion, for empathy, for patience, and for growth. No matter how patronising or scurrilous people may be, they are loved by God, and God wants us to believe in them and to see beyond their manifest atrociousness. Or, maybe we feel we have a vacuum of purpose and our loathing of the situation is due to a complete lack of stimuli.

God never leaves us in situations like this without giving us opportunities to glorify his Kingdom. Our Lord never wastes our time. Neither is anything within our lives unintentional.

As Job experienced, the depth and length of our horrendous situations may resemble the abyss and a season so long we tire into a disfiguring fatigue. But God will see us through, if we don’t give up.

The victory out of all this is enduring the duration, one humbling opportunity at a time.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.

Postscript: an obvious exception regarding the target of this article is familial abuse or rampant neglect. These situations we should hate, and do what we can to make a better life.