Prior to my retirement from professional baseball in November of 1989, I had realized that God was doing something in my life that was bigger than baseball. I knew, before the cancer in my arm had returned, before my arm had to be amputated, that a major change was coming. I didn’t know what God had in store, and I had no idea how hard the journey would be, but I knew something different lay ahead.

That heartfelt assurance was a strong motivation to press forward, but it didn’t make ... (continued)

When you go through a change as drastic as an amputation, you have to learn all over again how to function in daily life. It is scary to face the practical issues of such an overwhelming change. At the beginning, you don’t even know where or how to begin. In my case, for example, writing with one hand and no way to hold the paper in place is a challenge. So is tucking a shirt into your pants. You tuck in the shirt, the pants fall. You pull up the pants, the shirt pulls out. (Just try it with ... (continued)

As an art director for a large metropolitan newspaper, Carol Everett didn’t struggle with issues related to her identity and purpose. Like many busy professionals, she simply didn’t have time to think about them. Then Carol’s life took an unexpected turn. Several family tragedies, a rare gum disease, and Lupus left her so depressed and physically drained that she lost her job and eventually had to be hospitalized. Adversity shattered Carol’s world, leaving her former life and identity in so m... (continued)

Debbie wasn’t the least bit concerned when her husband, sports agent Van Ardan, climbed aboard a Lear jet with his good friends, Robert Fraley and Payne Stewart. It was a clear, crisp, October morning—a great day to fly—but after takeoff something went terribly wrong. For reasons yet unknown, the plane continued on autopilot for four hours until, watched by the world on CNN, it crashed in a desolate pasture in South Dakota.

The love of Debbie’s life and companion of her dreams disappe... (continued)

Sometimes finding God’s purpose in the midst of adversity requires us to make major personal changes over a period of time. At other times, our God-given purpose may be right in front of us. To discover it, we simply need to open our hearts to God’s leading and lift our eyes to opportunities we could easily overlook.

I’ll never forget the first time I talked with Bob Reno. Bob and Inez, his wife of 51 years, were both devout Christians and cancer survivors. Bob was blind from diabetes... (continued)

When we journey through a period of suffering, so much energy goes into surviving the moment that it’s easy to lose perspective, to lose sight of who we are and what we’re about. We also suffer losses that significantly change life. So when the fog of adversity finally lifts, we often feel disoriented, confused, and uncertain. How do we get our bearings again? How do we begin the process of discovering or rediscovering our identity and purpose? How do we start moving in a new direction?

It is difficult—if not impossible—to turn on the light of objectivity by ourselves.
We need guidance from the Holy Spirit and usually the hones (more...)