Character is Like a Muscle

In Father Fiction's chapter about Self-Pity, the author, Donald Miller, has this paragraph:

"When people go to the gym to work out, they aren't building up their muscles. They are tearing them down. No kidding. When you lift weights, you are doing damage to your muscles. The reason your muscles grow, then, is because your body repairs the damaged muscles and makes them bigger so the next time you lift that much weight, you won't get hurt. So then you just lift more weights, and your body gets stronger and stronger."

So, it gives me hope that the more weight and situations that God gives me, the stronger I become.

Our sermon in church on Sunday was titled, "Why Bad Things Happen To Good People" and although there was no definative answer or reasons to why they happen, there are some elements that I think we must take from bad situations. One of which is to grow from it.

If we can't stop bad things from happening, we can at least take control of our reactions to it and use it to grow and become stronger. Like our muscles. If life begins to tear us down and tear us apart, we can use that to grow stronger.

There is a line in the chapter that I love love love:

"People who wallow in self-pity never grow strong in character."

I think it may be worthy of a wall hanging reminder. Maybe in my bedroom by the door so that every morning, I can read it and remember. I need to be reminded to not wallow in self-pity, to not complain (which Donald Miller states is nothing bet verbal self-pity), and to use all my circumstances to grow strong. And believe me, I have a lot of circumstances to grow from...