Keith Battle - Growing Through

I want to talk today about growing through. We all have times when we’re going through. The question is, are you growing through? The first time I met the pastor of Vicky’s home church in Hempstead, New York, was about 10 or 12 summers ago. I was there speaking at a revival or crusade they had in the summer, and they set up a tent across the street in a parking lot. They held a community outreach event and had preaching at night. I was invited to come and speak at this event, and one of the days before one of the services, the pastor, whom I had really never met, invited me to lunch. He took me to a place in Long Island called the Nautical Mile. It is in the Freeport area of Long Island, and there on the Nautical Mile, we went to a restaurant and ate outside, alongside the water flowing along the Woodcliff Canal. I remember it as if it were today. He was sitting there eating oysters, and I couldn’t understand how people could do it. He was picking them up and sucking them down, putting hot sauce on them. To me, it was gross. But he was a very outgoing kind of person, and he asked me a question as if he knew me: «So, how are things going with you?» Then he asked another question as if he knew me, but he didn’t really know me. For some reason, I just broke down on him. I talked about everything that hurt me in my life. I started talking about how rough things were in my ministry, my family, and my health. I just told him everything that upset me, letting him know I felt like a victim. The irony is, as he continued eating, he said almost in a disruptive way, «So, what did you learn from it?» When he said that to me, I was offended by it, to be honest. I was offended because, first of all, he acted as if he was annoyed that I had continued this soliloquy of suffering, and I wasn’t finished; I still had more stories to share! He seemed fatigued by my testimony. The second reason I was offended was that I really didn’t have an answer for him. I was so consumed by what I had been through that I wasn’t looking for lessons; I was looking for empathy. Have you ever been there? I didn’t want insight. I wanted compassion. I didn’t want him to try and teach me what the lesson was—I wanted understanding. I thought, «I’m a victim, and victims don’t learn; victims don’t grow.» I was thinking about that lunch I had with him over a decade ago. I thought about it yesterday and how much of a blessing I didn’t appreciate at the time. But I thank God for his question now because his question shocked me out of being a victim and forced me to see all the treasure in everything I had been through. It helped me see that, at the time, I wasn’t growing through anything; I was just going through it. See, how you view the «through» matters. Everybody, say «through.» All I’m telling you today is, «through"—there’s a place in life called «through, ” and you’re going there. I don’t care if you live in Mitchellville, Forestville, or Rockville; you’re going through. You could move uptown, downtown, or crosstown; you’re still going through. You can leave this wife and get another one; you’re still going through. You can leave this church and find another one; you’re still going through. You can quit your job and follow your purpose; you’re still going through. You can get straight A’s or drop out; you’re still going through. You can be nice to your neighbor and treat everybody right; you still have to go through. „Through“ is a place that all of us must travel. It’s a space we all must go through. You can’t go around „through, ” you can’t jump over „through, ” and you can’t duck under „through.“ You got to go through. Tell somebody, „You gotta go through.“ It helped me to look at the „through“ differently because everything we’ve accomplished in our lives happened because we went through. „Through“ is the price of admission to get to the next level. „Through“ is the bridge to the next level. You can’t accomplish anything without going through. You couldn’t get here today; some of y’all had to go through something to get here today. I bet it wasn’t easy for some of you to get here. I bet you had to go through something to get here. I don’t know if it was a headache; I don’t know if you came on your period; I don’t know what happened, but you went through something to arrive here today. I bet it was a fight. I bet you rolled over in bed two or three times. I bet you thought about not coming. But look at what you got! You went through something to be here, and God met you here because you have a word for you today. There’s a blessing in your breast; you had to get them!