Someone once told me that they were going to take me down beyond all recognition.  These are not words anyone would like to hear. And though they came from an actual person, I believe each of us who follow Christ live under that kind of threat of attack on a regular basis.

And as I talked about a couple weeks ago, I have been feeling the heat big-time.

A friend told me to keep a list of things that could fall under being attacked during the weeks leading up to my book coming out, and I did.  But here’s what’s interesting.

Some of those bad things had some pretty cool silver linings.

I can’t share details of most of the bad things, so I’ll need to do some generalizing.

Several people have gotten mad at me and accused me of things I didn’t do and one even called me names.
The silver lining is that this reminded me yet again whose opinion of me matters in my life.  Only God’s. Only God’s. Only God’s.

Several close friends had difficult things happen to them or their children.
The silver lining is I have been able to try to love them through it, and was reminded yet again that life doesn’t revolve around me.

Something is going on that is putting my kids’ welfare in jeopardy.
The silver lining is that I’ve been reminded that my kids belong to God and he sees them when I can’t be with them.

My son and I were in a small car accident.
The silver lining is that the rental car we used for six days was the most fun Jeep ever.

My grandfather passed away.
The silver lining is that he began a relationship with Christ just days before he died.  Pretty amazing.

Those were just a handful of the bad things that have happened the past month or two.  But on top of seeing some good through the bad, I also realized that though yes, some of my temporary happiness had been stolen and, yes, I was crying a lot (I cry a lot anyway, so no biggie), that if my enemy actually thought I was going to call my publisher up and have my book pulled from the shelves, he was dead wrong.  I’m not sure what he thought he was going to accomplish, but all he really ended up doing to me was forcing me to go to Jesus and my friends more, and be more grateful and aware that what I have to say might be of some importance.

I heard a quote once that basically said if you’re doing nothing significant to build the Kingdom, satan will leave you alone.  So when spiritual attacks come, I am ironically encouraged, because it shows me that I am in the thick of it, trying to pull light down over the dark.  And I’ll take attack and forward movement over quiet any day.