Want Your Life Back?
There are times when this is understandable. When we are sick, we want to feel better. When life is hectic, we want things to settle down. The longer these trials last, the more we wish our life would return to normal.
This feeling becomes more common with age. Pains and heartaches accumulate and make life hard to bear. We find ourselves remembering a time when we did not have all this stress. As children we laughed more and slept better. We never worried about elections, the economy or world war. As parents, we have happy memories of our children when they were young—before they became sinners like us. But now our lives seem to be one hardship after another. We find ourselves daydreaming about the good old days.
Adjusting to change is a hard but necessary lesson in the school of life. Things happen we did not expect and there is no going back to the way things were. When Joseph went to look for his brothers, he had no idea that his life would never be the same after that day. But he made the best of a very bad situation. He did not become bitter because life as he had enjoyed it was taken from him. Daniel had no plans to go to Babylon to serve a heathen king, but he used that experience to glorify God. There was no turning back for either of these great men, but the situation that was forced upon them only made them better.
“But I just want to get my life back. I just want things to return to normal. Is there anything wrong with that?” Have you considered the fact that your life is not really yours? It belongs to God. God gives us life (Acts 17:25). Our lives are in His hand (Ecc. 9:1). God said, “All souls are mine” (Ecc. 18:4). The life you had before and the life you have now are from God. Whatever the circumstances may be—good or bad—we are to take what God gives us and use it to glorify Him. Jesus did not say we should cling to our life as we had it. He said we are to lose our life by giving it to Him (Matt. 16:24-25).
Is it best to get your life back like it was before? You might have less trouble if that happened, but is that best for you and all who are involved both now and in the future? There is more at stake in your life than keeping things in place like you want them. Sometimes returning to “normal” is not best spiritually. We are more selfish and prideful than we want to admit. Trials make us better if we humble ourselves. Why should we long for a time when we enjoyed the things of this life more but loved the things of God less?
“Do not say, ‘Why were the former days better than these? For you do not inquire wisely concerning this” (Ecc. 7:10).
Kerry
West End church of Christ• October 18, 2026
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Morning—The Foundation Those Before Us Laid