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

So if you've ever felt like life was hitting you harder than you could handle, if you've ever asked yourself why this is happening to me, well, my friend, I have to believe that you are exactly where you're meant to be.

And that is episode 366 of Grit Grace and Inspiration.

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

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.

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Okay, as we're diving into today's episode, we're gonna go ahead and start off by acknowledging the one single truth related to today's topic to make it all work is 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 that's like gonna unlock all these amazing opportunities.

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

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

No, no way, shape, or form.

Not me, not you, nor anyone else.

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

We don't want the one with all the curves.

We don't want the one that has us going off-roading.

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

Set cruise control to 80 and be on our way.

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.

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

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

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, was completely out of my control.

I had no say in it.

I never wanted it.

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

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

And in fact, my friend, it was.

It has been.

It has been absolutely devastating.

I would describe parts of my journey as living in a pure hell.

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.

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.

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 and understanding how things in life, they shape us, they make us who we are.

When I lost my ability to see, 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.

And yeah, what I've gained along the way are things that I never realized.

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.

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

It's brought me closer to my family members.

I've become best friends with my parents, with my sister, with my nana.

I get to go every month with my other grandmother, Janny.

We get to go to lunch each month.

We make it a point to schedule it on the calendar.

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

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

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.

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

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

And no, I'm not happy that I'm blind.

My goodness gracious, no, my friend.

I still pray that maybe one day I can wake up and see again.

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.

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

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

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

Maybe I never would have started this podcast.

Maybe I never would be talking to you right now.

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.

And for myself, if I'm able to use what I've gone through to be a help to you, 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.

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.

And I mean that with all of my heart.

And so I turn it to you and say, what have you gone through?

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.

And slowly they kind of steal a little piece of you.

Because, well, it's not easy to keep a secret.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

So maybe it's time to go ahead and turn the page and begin a new chapter.

A new story.

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

Yeah, I get it.

We can't always control what happens to us in this life.

That is for certain.

But we can always control how we react to it, what we choose to do with it.

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.

I can't.

That's not me.

I realized the opportunity to be able to help people.

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

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, all in this way of sharing my story in hopes of being a help to someone else.

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.

What did you learn because of it?

How has it impacted your life because of what happened?

Not just looking at the negative, but looking at the positive.

Did it have you grow into somebody new?

Did a bad relationship teach you of what love really is?

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

We're not meant to do life alone.

And thank goodness, I've never had to.

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

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

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

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.

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

Family doesn't have to be related by blood.

Family can be friends.

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

Form relationships beyond just being colleagues at work.

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

We have to have somebody to be able to walk this path with.

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.

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.

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, 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.

That was it.

Just four friends.

And I'm grateful to say that I'm still friends with them today.

Now, no, do I get to see them all the time?

No.

Do we get to talk all the time?

No.

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.

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

Find that person that you can lean on when you need to.

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.

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

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

What do I want to do with my life?

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

Think of it like this.

Think of examples of the person who overcomes heartbreak.

Maybe they become a counselor.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

We just have to take the time, the effort, have the courage and the strength to figure it out.

It's not always easy.

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

I just want to be the voice of encouragement, telling you that you got this, you can do this, you can get through this.

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

It's not happening for nothing.

I promise you that.

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 date.

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

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.

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

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.

And uh let's sit down and let's talk about life.

Until next time, my friend, I'm your host, Kevin Lowe.

This was another episode of Grit Grace and Inspiration.

I hope you enjoyed today's episode, and more importantly, I hope that it might make an impact on your life from this day forward.