#366: Inspirational Insight: How Life's Challenges Build Resilience & Lead to Personal Growth & Development

Kevin Lowe: And that is episode 366 of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

Kevin Lowe: Hey, I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, and you are listening to Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

Kevin Lowe: If there's any chance that you had high hopes going into the year 2025 to make it the best year of your life, and yet here we are in the midst of it, and you're kind of thinking, man, I feel like I'm spinning my wheels.

Kevin Lowe: I feel like I'm losing my momentum. January 1st, you hit it strong.

Kevin Lowe: You were excited. But now you're getting into the thick of it, and you're just kind of losing that enthusiasm for the year.

Kevin Lowe: If you feel me, well, I feel you because I get what you're thinking.

Kevin Lowe: But I came up with something to combat that feeling.

Kevin Lowe: It's called 14 Nuggets of Wisdom for a Better Life. It's what I'm calling the cheat code you need to be sure that 2025 is indeed the year you want it to be.

Kevin Lowe: So I have created this free ebook and exclusive private podcast episode all on this topic of the 14 Nuggets of Wisdom for a Better Life. It's totally free.

Kevin Lowe: It's all for you. All you have to do is click the link at the top of today's show notes, or you can just head on over to the website, gritgraceinspiration.com.

Kevin Lowe: I have it featured right there on the homepage where you can get signed up.

Kevin Lowe: Go ahead and download your free ebook, dive into the exclusive podcast episode, and hopefully be on your way to indeed making this the year you wanted it to be.

Kevin Lowe: Okay, as we're diving into today's episode, we're going to go ahead and start off by acknowledging the one single truth related to today's topic to make it all work.

Kevin Lowe: It's that we all have to acknowledge right off the bat that when we're talking about this idea of finding this hidden secret, this hidden key inside of our life struggles, it's like going to unlock all these amazing opportunities.

Kevin Lowe: Well, we first must acknowledge the fact that nobody wants hard times.

Kevin Lowe: Nobody wakes up in the morning hoping to be challenged, wants to be struggled, wants to be knocked down.

Kevin Lowe: No, no way, shape or form. Not me, not you, nor anyone else.

Kevin Lowe: Every single one of us, if given the choice, would choose the easy path, the straight road.

Kevin Lowe: We don't want the one with all the curves. We don't want the one that has us going off-roading.

Kevin Lowe: No, we're just looking for a simple highway.

Kevin Lowe: Set cruise control to 80 and be on our way.

Kevin Lowe: But the truth is, my friend, is that those tough times shape us into the best versions of us in ways that peace and comfort and ease never could.

Kevin Lowe: The more bumps in the road, well, the more chances to expose who we really are.

Kevin Lowe: We start peeling back the layers like an onion, revealing who we are at the core.

Kevin Lowe: Just like if you know my story, of course, you know that when I was 17, I had the unexpected happen. I became completely blind.

Kevin Lowe: It was completely out of my control. I had no say in it. I never wanted it.

Kevin Lowe: Matter of fact, I remember in school when we would learn about all the senses that we have, the five different senses.

Kevin Lowe: I always remember thinking that losing your sight would be, of course, the absolute worst.

Kevin Lowe: And in fact, my friend, it was. It has been.

Kevin Lowe: It has been absolutely devastating. I would describe parts of my journey as living in a pure hell.

Kevin Lowe: It was like a nightmare I could never wake up from. And if you had told me at that moment, even in the years afterwards, that this was actually happening for me instead of against me, well, quite honestly, the response would not have been very good.

Kevin Lowe: And I want to be sure that in case you are in the midst of your own challenge, I hope and pray that if you're still listening today, that you don't get me wrong, because I don't want to discount what you're going through.

Kevin Lowe: Just the same, I'm not discounting what I've gone through. But as somebody who has been through hell on earth, as somebody who's been able to travel down the roadways, I do have the advantage of being able to look back.

Kevin Lowe: And understanding how things in life, they shape us. They make us who we are.

Kevin Lowe: But I lost my ability to see.

Kevin Lowe: It took more than just my sight. It took hobbies and passions and loves and dreams were all taken from me with the loss of my eyesight.

Kevin Lowe: And yet, what I've gained along the way are things that I never realized.

Kevin Lowe: Things like resiliency. things like love and appreciation in a way deeper than I feel like I ever would have been able to experience had I not gone through this.

Kevin Lowe: It's brought me closer to my own creator, to Jesus Christ.

Kevin Lowe: It's brought me closer to my family members. I've become best friends with my parents, with my sister, with my Nana.

Kevin Lowe: I get to go every month with my other grandmother, Janie.

Kevin Lowe: We get to go to lunch each month. We make it a point to schedule it on the calendar.

Kevin Lowe: I talk to my Nana every single night on the phone.

Kevin Lowe: And whoever it is I'm talking to in my family, you better bet when I hang up the phone, I'm sure to say I love you.

Kevin Lowe: Because I understand that nothing in this life is forever, that tomorrow is never guaranteed, and that every second we have on this earth is a blessing.

Kevin Lowe: That, my friend, is an insight only gained by going through what I did.

Kevin Lowe: So at the end of the day, here I am in my 21st year of being completely blind.

Kevin Lowe: And no, I'm not happy that I'm blind.

Kevin Lowe: My goodness gracious, no, my friend. I still pray that maybe one day I can wake up and see again.

Kevin Lowe: So I would love to get to see the faces of my family. I'd love to get to see what the world looks like, but I still have to be grateful.

Kevin Lowe: I have to be grateful for all the gifts that I have been given, for all the life lessons I've been taught.

Kevin Lowe: And I have to be grateful that just maybe God knew this was exactly what was part of my plan.

Kevin Lowe: And he knew I could leave an impact on this world far greater than if I had never gone through what I did.

Kevin Lowe: Maybe I never would have started this podcast.

Kevin Lowe: Maybe I never would be talking to you right now.

Kevin Lowe: Hopefully, wherever you are in the world, wherever you're at in your life, I hope and pray that whether it's this episode or another one, that something I say might leave an impact on your life, making things a little bit better, a little bit easier for you.

Kevin Lowe: And for myself If I'm able to use what I've gone through To be a help to you.

Kevin Lowe: Even if I've never met you, we've never spoken. Like I said, you might be on the other side of the world than me.

Kevin Lowe: But if I can help you, then I have to believe in all my heart that what I've gone through has been worth it.

Kevin Lowe: And I mean that with all of my heart. And so I turn it to you and say, what have you gone through?

Kevin Lowe: What have the moments been that have shaped you? What are the moments in your life that maybe you've been running away from, that you've been ashamed of, that you've been hiding, that you've kept locked away.

Kevin Lowe: And slowly, they kind of steal a little piece of you because, well, it's not easy to keep a secret.

Kevin Lowe: It's not easy to hold back from letting it be known who you really are for fear that people will judge you.

Kevin Lowe: That's not an easy thing to carry with you.

Kevin Lowe: I hope and pray that you don't have to carry that with you. and should you be carrying that with you, I pray that you find the courage, the strength to somehow let it go.

Kevin Lowe: Even if that is simply by you, finally, once and for all, forgiving yourself.

Kevin Lowe: Now, maybe you're in the thick of it right now. And I want you to know this, my friend, is that no matter where you're at in life, this is not the end of your story. You still have more to write.

Kevin Lowe: Sometimes we just have to go ahead and turn the page.

Kevin Lowe: Maybe you're at a point in your life right now where the chapter you've been living, you've already written all that you needed to write.

Kevin Lowe: So maybe it's time to go ahead and turn the page and begin a new chapter, a new story.

Kevin Lowe: You hold the ability to write your story, my friend.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, I get it. We can't always control what happens to us in this life.

Kevin Lowe: That is for certain. But we can always control how we react to it.

Kevin Lowe: What we choose to do with it.

Kevin Lowe: Me, I could, I guess, have decided to not do anything with what happened to me, to maybe just pretend it never happened. But I couldn't.

Kevin Lowe: I can't. That's not me. I realized the opportunity to be able to help people.

Kevin Lowe: That's why I started public speaking so soon after.

Kevin Lowe: Started speaking at just schools, elementary schools, middle schools, talking to the kids about what I'd gone through, the cool technology I get to use.

Kevin Lowe: All in this way of sharing my story in hopes of being a help to someone else.

Kevin Lowe: And so I encourage you, when you think of the stuff that you've gone through in life, I hope that you will maybe start to think a little bit deeper.

Kevin Lowe: What did you learn because of it? How has it impacted your life because of what happened?

Kevin Lowe: Not just looking at the negative, but looking at the positive.

Kevin Lowe: Did it have you grow into somebody new? Did a bad relationship teach you of what love really is?

Kevin Lowe: It made you realize that you needed to maybe start loving yourself more, that you needed to give yourself the attention that you deserve.

Kevin Lowe: Maybe was it a mistake you made at work that led to you being fired?

Kevin Lowe: And maybe you've been beating yourself up about it every day since.

Kevin Lowe: Well, my friend, first and foremost, I hope that you let it go.

Kevin Lowe: But I also encourage you to look at it and learn from it.

Kevin Lowe: What can you take away from it to be a benefit to you? because it's your turn to stop letting this tear you apart, but instead start letting it build you up.

Kevin Lowe: The other thing about challenges that I kind of hinted at a little bit earlier with my own story is the relationships that challenges can forge.

Kevin Lowe: We're not meant to do life alone. And thank goodness I've never had to.

Kevin Lowe: Thank goodness when I went blind, I had an amazing family with me.

Kevin Lowe: I still have an amazing family with me to this day.

Kevin Lowe: But maybe for you, maybe you don't have a family there for you.

Kevin Lowe: And if that is the case, I want you to know that first and foremost, I am sorry, especially if you are struggling, because I know how important family is.

Kevin Lowe: But at the same time, I encourage you to seek out family.

Kevin Lowe: Family doesn't have to be related by blood. Family can be friends.

Kevin Lowe: It can be people that you're close to at church, at school, at work.

Kevin Lowe: Form relationships beyond just being colleagues at work.

Kevin Lowe: We need to do life together, especially when we're struggling, especially when we're going through hard times.

Kevin Lowe: We have to have somebody to be able to walk this path with.

Kevin Lowe: And I can tell you that when you do go through the hard times, just as I did, It shows you who your true friends are.

Kevin Lowe: I was in my junior year of high school when I went blind. And I would tell you that I had a big group of friends.

Kevin Lowe: But when I went blind, out of that whole big group of friends, do you know how many of them actually stood by my side?

Kevin Lowe: Who came and visited me, not just once, but who continued to check in on me, who continued to offer to pick me up, to take me with them, and our friends to go do stuff outside of school, it was a total of four.

Kevin Lowe: That was it. Just four friends. And I'm grateful to say that I'm still friends with them today.

Kevin Lowe: Now, no, do I get to see them all the time? No. Do we get to talk all the time? No.

Kevin Lowe: But when it matters, when there's something going on, you can bet I know who I can turn to and I will be forever grateful for that.

Kevin Lowe: I pray that you can find that core group of friends for yourself, even if it's just one person.

Kevin Lowe: Find that person that you can lean on when you need to.

Kevin Lowe: And the last thing I want to touch on today when we're talking about the importance of challenges in terms of the benefits they can have is oftentimes they can align us with our own purpose in life.

Kevin Lowe: Because when your life gets shaken up, you start asking bigger questions.

Kevin Lowe: You start looking and wondering, what is it that really matters?

Kevin Lowe: What do I want to do with my life?

Kevin Lowe: And hopefully you can get to a point in asking, how can I use this experience for my good?

Kevin Lowe: Think of it like this. Think of examples of the person who overcomes heartbreak.

Kevin Lowe: Maybe they become a counselor.

Kevin Lowe: Maybe the one who overcomes cancer becomes a doctor or a nurse.

Kevin Lowe: Pain has a way of revealing purpose like no other way possible.

Kevin Lowe: And so whatever you're going through, I encourage you to think about it, to begin to look at it from a different angle, to start to explore the good that might be there as long as you have the courage to peel back the layers, to go a little bit deeper, to dig a little bit deeper, to find the core of that problem, that struggle, and see what you might be able to take from it.

Kevin Lowe: Because my friend, at the end of the day, I believe life is happening for us.

Kevin Lowe: Even though it may feel like it's against us, I believe it's just the opposite.

Kevin Lowe: I believe indeed that life is happening for us. I believe that the things that are happening in our lives are indeed meant for our good.

Kevin Lowe: We just have to take the time, the effort, have the courage and the strength to figure it out. It's not always easy.

Kevin Lowe: Please do not mistake me for making this sound easy because it's not.

Kevin Lowe: I just want to be the voice of encouragement telling you.

Kevin Lowe: You got this. You can do this. You can get through this.

Kevin Lowe: And I promise you from my own experience that there is purpose in your pain.

Kevin Lowe: It's not happening for nothing. I promise you that.

Kevin Lowe: And hey, I want to leave you with this. If today's episode, whether it resonated or not, whether you got value from it or not, If you would ever just like to talk, please realize that inside of the episode show notes, you'll find a link where we can schedule a virtual coffee day.

Kevin Lowe: This can just be a simple phone call where we can meet and talk.

Kevin Lowe: If you've got stuff you're going through in life, I would love to hear about it to see if I might be able to offer a little bit of wisdom, a little bit of my own insights.

Kevin Lowe: Or hey, if nothing else, maybe you just need somebody that you would love to talk to.

Kevin Lowe: And you know what? I'd love to be that person. So please be sure to check out the link inside of today's show notes where you can book a free virtual coffee date with me.

Kevin Lowe: And let's sit down and let's talk about life.

Kevin Lowe: Until next time, my friend, I'm your host, Kevin Lowe. This was another episode of Grit, Grace and Inspiration.

Kevin Lowe: I hope you enjoyed today's episode And more importantly, I hope that it might make an impact on your life from this game.

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