Have you watched the pages of the calendar flip by or listened to the tick-tock of the clock counting out the hours year after year, wondering where God is in your life?
Personal development is not an event. Neither is it a one-size-fits-all experience. Development takes time, tests, failure and overcoming. God knows each one of us individually. He knows what we each need in order to develop and strengthen our spiritual muscles and sharpen our spiritual insight and wisdom. More often than not, this requires detours in life to allow us the opportunity to learn, grow and develop.
When you were in school, you would have to take regular tests. These tests let the teacher know where you stood on the material you needed to learn. If you were unable to pass these tests, then more assignments and more tests would have to be given.
On several of my shirts, I have my initials sewn onto the cuff—A.T.E. There will never be a question about whose shirts those are because my initials demonstrate that they are my shirts. I do this on the shirts that I have personally customized for me.
One day a man visited his doctor because he was in excruciating pain. The doctor asked him, “Where does it hurt?” The man answered, “All over.” The doctor told the man to touch his shoulder. The man touched his shoulder and cried out in pain. Next, the doctor told the man to touch his forehead. The man touched his forehead and cried out in pain again. The doctor told the man to touch his knee. The man touched his knee and winced in pain. He said, “Doctor, everywhere I touch, I’m in pain.”