Sitting in my office one morning, with my heart weakened, and my spirit nearly broken, I began thinking about where God had been the last decade of my life. I wondered why so many of God’s promised blessings seemed to evade me and much of this world’s trouble seemed to have no problem landing on my doorstep and that of my family. Nothing seemed to go right for me no matter how hard I worked, no matter how hard I prayed, no matter what I did.

In a spirit of resentment and anger I began to think through the heartache, the failures, the opportunities lost and toss them up to God as an in-your-face gesture demanding an explanation and concrete answers. I wanted answers to the countless questions flooding my mind and I wanted them now!

It was just a few weeks from that moment in my office God began to take me on a life-changing journey to the center of brokenness. I had come to the end of myself and had to re-evaluate my priorities discarding all that I once thought was important - self, stuff, and status. In the heart of my journey where it was just my soul and God the search for real meaning and contentment – peace – turned up a bountiful, never-ending supply of intrinsic joy fashioned by the very hand of God. I had given my life to Christ years before but never truly sought to be led by Jesus.

Sitting here today, I can look back and see His plan in all of the pain and suffering. I can see that the refiner’s fire was what I needed to go through in order to fulfill His plan for me in this ministry.

I Corinthians 1: 4,5 sums it up nicely: "..that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."

-- Gregory Paul Smith's debut CD I Can Live Again is in stores now. For more information, visit www.gregorypaulsmith.com.