Anyone that has gone through hard challenges knows that look people give you when they see you struggling in public, as if to say "better them than me."
Moms with their hands full of crying children after a long day, arriving at the grocery with her kids past the point of being consolable. A neighbor struggling with past addictions trying to let go of the chains of the past as he fights to reclaim his sovereignty. A friend who lost their job out of the blue struggling to support their family. This list of "better them than me" goes on and on.
We see others around us go through these unwanted scenarios and we hope they will never come our way. But if you look at things differently you may see these challenges people face actually have the potential to make them a “better him or her” than me.
I have to admit, it seems most of my life I have been on this list continually fighting to get off of it.
At the age of 12, I suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury which took 5 years of work in order to speak fluently again. I had to completely relearn spelling and math.
At the age of 18, I broke my neck in a freak accident running down a sandhill at Lake Powell that left me paralyzed and a quadriplegic for life.
At the age of 29, I basically froze to death after a freak all-terrain vehicle accident. I was found lifeless and with an internal body temperature of 73 degrees. I was miraculously brought back to life.
At the age of 34 I was involved in a high-speed collision on the highway. that required extensive facial reconstruction.
If I could go back in time and change things to spare me from all of my hardships I would. It’s not fun suffering and struggling every day in life; it gets old fast! But if I’m frank with myself, if I could turn back the hands of time sparing me from my trials, I surely wouldn’t be the "better me" you see today.
The old Brandon, not going through the trials of adversity no doubt, would’ve been looking at myself and my difficulties saying "better him than me." Not wanting any part of those struggles. But the Brandon today can honestly say, looking at the old Brandon, that I'm a “better me than him.”
Isn’t it true that the result of who we are come from the very incidents we’d wish away? When you compare the old you from the new you after going through challenges, can you see the "better me than him?'' Our adversities allow us to turn ourselves into a better me if we allow the weight of our difficulties to strengthen our soul instead of destroying it.
This positive or negative outcome all depends on you. There’s an equation that I live by (F+A=E). Faith+Attitude=Everything. This turns you into better me's.
So, will, you choose to turn your challenges into a better me?
In Brandon Sulser‘s book We Are All Paralyzed, Brandon not only has to learn how to overcome the many life threatening trials that have been bestowed on him, but also to be
trusting in God through these trials. If you haven't picked up We Are All Paralyzed than you are missing out on not just learning about Brandon's incredible life journey, but also missing out on the potential personal growth you could have in learning that at the end of the day, we are all paralyzed in some way.
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