As I sit down to write this blog, I find myself in an all too familiar situation.  My team is in Denver ready to play the Avalanche and I am sitting in my house in Virginia, injured.  I got hurt last week and am hoping to be back by Christmas.  You never really get used to being injured or facing adversity, but you can change to way you respond to it.    After sitting out for 15 months with some eye and head issues, everything was going according to plan.  I was back to 100% and feeling very healthy.  My team has been playing well and I have been performing up to my own expectations.  Then it came to a screeching halt with a rib injury that will put me out for a few weeks.  God has a way of teaching us, and it seems that His favorite tool is adversity. If life went according to my plans, there would be no struggle, no hard times, and no rainy days.  There would only be cookies, cake, and vacations.  There is a term for this perpetual state of happiness and it is "a mountain top experience".  In Matt 17 Jesus takes Peter, James and John on a high mountain.  There He transfigured before them.  They were in the presence of God.  Peter then said, "Lord it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make three tabernacles: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."  This was Peter's mountaintop experience.  He was in the presence of God and he wanted to stay there.

We all get like this at times.
 
Sometimes our goal in life is to get to the top of the mountain.  When you get there, you realize that there is nothing but boulders and rock and stone.  No growth at all. It's an amazing experience but you are not challenged and you don't grow.  It is then, when you're at the top where you have a clear picture of the valley that you just came through.  The valley is green and lush and amazing to look at.   You didn't realize it at the time you were in it, but the valley (hard times) is where the real growth happens.

There is no denying that adversity and trials flat out stink!  Just know when you are in the middle it, that's when you're growing the most.

It is all about your response to it.