When disappointment drowns out success – my story
What are you striving for? Maybe a dream job, healing, a family issue, or a financially secure future?
My dream was to start a successful business. Check! The Lord gave it to me for 26 years. My bigger dream was to marry this awesome girl I was dating and build a life together. Double check! The business grew, as did our family, as did the Lord’s favor on our lives.
Until one day, everything changed.
While I will tell the fuller story at another time, the loss I experienced was catastrophic. My wife went home to be with the Lord at too young of an age, and then my business crumbled. Losses in other areas of life followed. This was only three years ago.
Have you experienced serious setbacks, grief, fear or desperation? These feelings are what drive me to write devotions. I want to encourage leaders and anyone navigating the challenges and disappointments of life.
Notwithstanding my losses, I’ve experienced many blessings since then. I treasure them while I can, because I’ve learned firsthand that life is a breath. It’s why I celebrate my new grandchildren, joy that comes in the morning, unexpected sunshine, friends that pray for me, and the promises of our loving God.
We know there will be more difficulties in life (as Jesus says in John 16:33). If you’re going through a trying time yourself right now, may the Lord comfort you with his presence and encouraging words like these:
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:16-18, NIV).
Celebrating renewal,
Tom Harper
Founder, BiblicalLeadership.com
LinkedIn profile | My books
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Free Resource
Leading with Eternity in Mind: The Tension of Now vs. Next
What would it look like to lead with both feet planted in the present while your heart is anchored in eternity? This free eBook explores the tension every Christian leader lives in and how to navigate it with faith, courage, and a willingness to live in God’s timing.
