When defeats, failures, sickness and other unfortunate incidents happen to us, our human nature, when it prevails, will make us so frustrated, upset and will consider it a big loss to us. That is normal.

However, if we will become very affected by the said setbacks and will force us to stop thinking of solutions on how we will get back to our system, that is not anymore acceptable.

It is easier said than done and people who have suffered much will even utter to us the widely used expression, “if you were in my situation”. However, it is more of a self pity than genuine expression of sadness.

The best way to encounter setback is to rationalize what it brings to us. What lies ahead that God did not permit us to get what we want, to reach where we want to go, to achieve or get a promotion that we want. Everything that is happening to us has its own meaning and purpose.

I have been through many setbacks and failures before and have been asking the Lord why it happened. And every time those unacceptable things happen, God would lead me to understand that there are better opportunities and better things that will happen after. God did not frustrate me. The answers might not immediately available but in his own time, he provided me more than I expected.

We have our own plans and because we want to succeed, we try our best to let it happen. However, the Lord who himself is a Master Planner has greater plans for us. It may not be obvious after we suffer defeats or did not receive our increase or we are not promoted but as he pours in what He thinks is best for us, we will be amazed of His wisdom and grand plans for us.

We cannot blame people to be affected by failures (and who in his right sense will say that even slightly, he will not be affected) but they should blame themselves if they did not find ways to escape from it. As I have said, there is no easy way to recover but as we focus on our goal to live a productive life despite all odds, we will, in the long run, appreciate both failures and success as they are part of our worldly existence.

Focusing on setbacks by blaming other people, cursing our adversaries and even blaming God for our misfortunes will not help us to survive. What we need to do is to evaluate our moves and actions and learn from those to guide us if we will still encounter the same situation in the future. Committing the same mistake and stumbling from the same obstacle are not healthy signs. The less we thrive in the same erroneous moves, the more we will be led to the right path that we deserved to traverse.

So the next time setback strikes, let us face it with the necessary weapons of self survival and brighter look to the future as our action today determines what we will be tomorrow.

Let us make failure our stepping stone to succeed.

Again, it is easier said than done, but, it is possible.

For God, nothing is impossible.