I have been listening to Erwin McMannus in recent days, specifically his podcasts in his sermon series Artisan. When talking about Job, he said something that struck me.

Bitterness usually doesn’t set in because of what happened to you; Bitterness usually sets in through your interpretation of why it happened to you. The brokenness that settles deep in your soul — I know this is going to be hard for you to believe but it’s not there because of what you experienced — of what happened. It is there because of your interpretation of your conclusion of why it happened to you.

It can cause you to take on a filter, a mindset of victimization for the rest of your life which will cause you to live a life of powerlessness for the rest of your life. It will cause you to misdirect your strength, trying to control the outside world that you have no control over, while relinquishing responsibility and control for your inner-world which you have full control over. ~Erwin McMannus, Artisan: Interpretation – Translation of Life, 2012

To come through adversity in life in a manner that’s healthy, it’s essential we grasp this reality.