So I worked a Men’s Conference this weekend and returned home Saturday afternoon completely spent. It’d been yeeears since I’d executed operations for a hundreds of people in person, and I had, not only tacked on a few more years, but was just rusty in general. I came home and completely knocked out. 

A couple hours later when I woke up, I rolled over to find Heather Locklear starring in a Lifetime movie on TV. Now, one thing about me – I’ll totally knock Lifetime for how cheesy and predictable their movies can be, buuut I’ve seen almost every one. Yep, I’m a sucker for a Lifetime movie binge, especially on a cozy, chilly day. 

As I rolled over, I heard the words “…everything has God’s fingerprints on it.” It was a scene where Heather Locklear’s character was reminding her daughters, after losing their father, that our responsibility as humans is to find God’s goodness and glory in everything – the good and the bad. 

“It’s easy to see God’s beauty in a beautiful sunrise, a snow-capped mountain, the smile of a healthy child, or in ocean waves crashing on a sandy beach. But can we learn to find the holiness in seemingly ugly circumstances — difficult life lessons, a family tragedy or a struggle for life?”

Ummm…does that smack anyone else like it did me?

Out of the remainder of that movie, and another I watched that night…on top of a very full Sunday, I held onto that. EVERYTHING has God’s fingerprint on it. I don’t know about you, but I often find myself praying away the ugly circumstances or seeing them as punishment for something. Guess that’s the “performer” in me – thinking that because I didn’t do something as I should’ve, THIS is the result. It’s not necessarily that I don’t believe struggles are from God, it just seems hard to find the beauty in something so painful in experience. Does that make sense? A part of me always wants to rush through to the other side just so I can see the tragedy, or the hardship, in hindsight…or from an aerial view. Kinda like how God sees it all along.

How many of you know that the bigger the opportunity to impact, the bigger the target on your back for attack?

New levels. New devils.

I remember feeling the reality of that statement a few years back when I enrolled in the Pastoral Support Team program at church. About a week into the program, our family was shattered by divorce. A personal, familial, UGLY attack designed to paralyze, and subsequently, end my faith walk.

I found myself thinking about that this morning, as I chatted with a friend of mine who so vividly gave me an aerial view of my last few weeks, even while sitting smack in the middle of the discomfort. As I sat and thought about the ugly circumstances of the last 3-4 weeks – the mental war going on inside, the growing concern about, literally, everything, I listened to her name off the recent YESes I’ve been obedient to walk into: Quitting my job and pursuing full time ministry work, registering, and eventually, leading a women’s study group, joining the women’s leadership team at church. The same opportunities God intended to use for development, stretching, increase, favor, impact are the exact opportunities the enemy has been using as reason for recent physical and mental attacks.

This weekend’s movie was a really gentle reminder to fix my eyes on God instead of on my circumstances. To see His beauty on it all. And to know that there’s a holiness in everything we experience this side of Heaven.

Do you see God’s fingerprint on everything in your life?