It’s an unpopular thought: Experiences of hardship can make us wiser and better positioned to help others.
Here’s why it’s unpopular. When you’re in the middle of hard times, you just want them to end. You want things to be good again. When enduring incredible stress and strain you probably don’t want to hear about how it might be making you stronger or wiser.
But that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
We tend to value advice from people who have also been through hardship. They have experience and hard-fought wisdom. If someone doles out advice but doesn’t have much experience and hasn’t had to deal with anything tough, then you’re probably not going to put the same stock in what they have to say.
Let’s say you go through hardship. Let’s say that experience gives you wisdom about life. Let’s also say that in the future someone you care about goes through a very dark valley. They need to talk to someone. They reach out to you. They listen to you as you give practical, faithful and helpful wisdom because you have been there.
I’m not saying that hardship is nice. It’s not. But it has the potential to make us wiser. That wisdom can, in turn, be a blessing to someone else down the line.
Consider Heman from Psalm 88:15: “From my youth I have suffered and been close to death; I have borne your terrors and am in despair.” And yet he came to be known as a man of wisdom (see 1 Kings 4:31). Some people experience a lot of pain. Heman was one of them. But people sought him out as a man of faith and wisdom. Perhaps because he had “been there,” he could be trusted as a source of help and hope.
I sincerely hope things are going well for you. But when they’re not—and if they’re not—I encourage you to trust in a God who can bring good out of bad, and can bring hope out of hurt.
Experiences of hardship can make us wiser and better positioned to help others.
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