One of actor Michael Caine’s go-to phrases is “use the difficulty.” To me, this says to go beyond making lemonade out of lemons, which seems like it should be said with a sigh.
Oh well, make lemonade. “Use the difficulty” almost sounds eager. Face it and let it teach.

I’ve never done this before, but I just made a list of my difficulties of the day. Now I’m sitting here tackling them with intensity. Not to fix them, but to let them shape me.  

(Of course I think we should fix what we can, but this is something different.)

Caine tells the story about a scene in which he was supposed to walk through a door. A chair had been tossed across the room in the previous scene. Unfortunately, it landed in a way that prevented him from getting in. That’s when the producer gave him the lesson. “Use the difficulty. Make the scene better. If it’s a dramatic scene, smash the chair. If it’s a comedy scene, trip over it.”

So maybe our task is to incorporate the difficulty. It’s there no matter how much we wish it would go away. We can let it deepen us.

Everything belongs. Romans 8:28.

There’s a Bible verse that talks about temptation. “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” 1 Cor. 10:13

WITH the temptation, he’ll provide. I wonder if the same could be said of difficulty. WITH the difficulty, he’ll provide.

There are people in this world who create difficulty, and that makes them haughty. But they don’t have the last word. Those who use the difficulty have the last word. This gives me so much hope.