I write a weekly column for our local paper each week. I've posted it my blog today.

"Ethel Waters was a regular at Billy Graham crusades. Many people remember her moving renditions of “His Eye Is On The Sparrow.” She had a beautiful voice.

But perhaps some who heard her sing were not aware of Ethel’s background. Ethel grew up in Harlem and she grew up hard. The opening line to her autobiography reads, “I never was a child. I never was coddled, or liked, or understood by my family. I never felt I belonged. I was always an outsider. I was born out of wedlock… Nobody brought me up.”

As I said, Ethel grew up hard.

Growing up in that manner could have limited what Ethel accomplished but she didn’t allow it too. Ethel sang the blues. And the blues she sang moved people. She said, “I sang them out of the depths of the private fire in which I was brought up… Only those who are being burned know what fire is like.”

Maybe you have been burned in life. The question is; “How will you react?”

Just because we’ve been burned doesn’t mean we have to allow it keep us down. Use the experience you are going through to make you stronger.

James said, “…the trying of your faith worketh patience” (1:5).

When you are in the midst of a trial, ask the Lord what you can learn from the experience. "