God Uses Broken Things | How to Grow From Adversity

On this episode of the Sales Gravy podcast, Jeb Blount focuses on brokeness and the two common mindsets of highly successful people and how to grow from adversity. This past week I stumbled on this quote passage from Vance Havner.  God uses broken things: broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength and broken people to do great things.  We have all been broken in some way, no matter what your path, no matter where you came from, no matter where you started, no matter where you finished, no matter how rich you are, how poor you are, everyone at some level has been broken.  That's good news because as human beings, brokeness binds us together. It's the one thing that we all have in common.  When we have faced that adversity and we have grown from it, is a story that we can tell other people. It's something we have that's part of us that we can share, and we can help other people with.  One of the things I've noticed recently is that there are a lot of people out there that are doing everything possible to avoid being broken, avoid adversity, and avoid even being bent.  They avoid pain and they shy away from obstacles. This is a mistake because adversity - being broken - is our greatest teacher. It is through the crucible of adversity that we become stronger.  Transformation Sometimes we're so broken that it transforms us. It changes us. We come back from that deep pain, different than who we were before.  Sometimes it opens up our eyes so that we can truly see. Other times it opens up our heart so that we can truly feel and love. That's the power of brokenness.  God uses broken things.  The Two Most Important Mindsets I've had the privilege of traveling to every continent on the globe except Antarctica. Along the way I've met some incredible people from all walks of life. What I've learned about successful people, is that ultimately they share two mindsets in common.  First, they believe that there is a higher power in their lives that put them on Earth for a purpose, and they're supposed to fulfill that purpose. In other words, they believe that they're supposed to be successful in their walk in life. The second thing they believe is that everything happens for a reason. This is the strongest of the two because this mindset gives you strength. This mindset frees you from the chains of victimhood.  This mindset that everything happens for a reason, allows you to learn from being broken. Learn from adversity, learn from pain, learn from the bad things that are going to happen to you; and trust me, bad things are going to happen to you. You will be broken again and again and again.   The Choice What successful people realize is that this is just part of walking through life and you have a choice about how you view this brokenness.  If it makes you a victim, you learn nothing. It holds you down, holds you back, and leads to misery and suffering.   On the other hand, if you believe that God (or your personal higher power) uses broken things on purpose, then you ask to most uplifting question: "What am I supposed to learn from this?" Sometimes what you learn is that you were broken because you were on the wrong path and that you need to get back to your purpose. In other situations, it's a signal that you need to make a quick course correction. What you were doing wasn't working. Try something new. Sometimes being broken gets you fired up. It's becomes the fuel and the motivation to get back up, dust yourself off, and run back into the game.  God uses broken things, broken soul to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength and broken people to do great things.  Ps. You can access Sales Gravy University Here