You see disappointments & difficulties. God sees opportunities.

By: Victoria Rosa-Garcia | Founder of PLH & Author of Purity + Peace

It's hard to believe that I launched Purity + Peace women's Bible Study ten years ago. What a journey it has been! Since our launch, hundreds of women have been through our small group Bible study, finding healing, restoration, and deliverance in Jesus' name.

As a 26-year-old woman who had moved to a new state to start over, I found myself in anxiety and depression. If you know me, I'm a bubbly extrovert, but during this quarter-life crisis, I was far from outgoing or full of life. I was...deflated.

Heart palpitations took over the rhythm of upbeat music I'd listen to daily.

And no, my heart was not beating to the rhythm of my N'Sync playlist, unfortunately. My heart was pumping adrenaline through my body, in fight-or-flight mode, 24/7, for what felt like months.

Night sweats woke me up at 3AM, destroying a lifetime history of recorded good sleep. Every single night, it never failed. I'd wake up in a cold sweat, look at the clock, and it read 3AM. Overwhelmed with frustration, I knew I wasn't getting back to sleep. It had been three months of the same experience night after night, and I wanted nothing more than to feel the benefits of REM sleep again.

Ruminating thoughts hijacked my executive brain at work, prohibiting me from writing the simplest of emails to my colleagues.

As the symptoms began to stack, it was difficult to deny that something was ...wrong.

"There's something wrong with me," I would think, over and over again.

Was it the juice detox I had just finished? Did I push myself too hard in the gym? Could be...

Was my job unsatisfying? Or frustrating me to the point of anxiety?

Sounded right, but not the full truth.

Or maybe it was more like...

I wasn't in the career I had aspired to be in, which felt like deep failure and disappointment.

Many of the friends I grew up with were already married, and I was ....not. Another disappointment.

No children. No family of my own. Disappointment.

No house I called mine. No boyfriend in sight.

Still not over an ex-relationship.

Or...was it the unmentionable best-friend breakup that brought me to this season of anxiety and depression?

Looking back on it, the culmination of disappointments was stacked higher than I dared to admit.

Today, with social media and the internet, we have access to many educated voices around the normalization of psychological disparities and mental illness. These days, there's a plethora of information about the psychological impacts of childhood trauma on a person's psyche, for example. Some conversations encourage psychological safety within families through intentional dialogue. There are narratives around holding abusers of all kinds accountable. We are fortunate to live in a world where the narrative around mental health is expanding, fostering empathy toward the topic rather than treating it as taboo.

Well, my quarter-life crisis did not happen in the middle of this phase of the internet. When this spiral of my life occurred, it was very much 2012. No ChatGPT. No Instagram reels about how to spot your narcissistic boyfriend. No podcasts about fighting depression in a world that forces you to compare yourself to others minute-by-minute. No women's Bible studies where women could share their hearts deeply about their disappointments, anxiety, and depression. Point being, no Purity + Peace. These things did not exist back then.

But what I did have was: A loving family that pointed me to Christ. A strong support system, including Godly friends, who listened to me over and over about the same things and loved me back to life (God bless all of them!). A church family who encouraged me to rest and seek professional counseling. A pastor who counseled me and told me I was going to be okay. An amazing therapist at First Baptist Orlando who introduced me to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy + Jesus and Scripture to help me take my thoughts captive. Amazing resources in books that I read and began to apply to my life. Loving coworkers who took care of me that season.

I look back and realize that this was the blueprint God provided me to write the beloved Bible study that has helped women heal for the past decade. A hard season turned into a roadmap for hundreds of other women, and is still a roadmap for me today.

Since then, I've been through many kinds of stormy seasons. The tragic loss of my brothers. Bouts of cancer in my parents. My first-ever surgery for the removal of stage 4 endometriosis. Lots of health challenges and scares. And once again, lots of disappointment.

You know, I'd be lying if I said that leading a ministry, writing a Bible study, cultivating community, and loving Jesus solves everything on this side of heaven---and you live happily ever after. Unfortunately, Jesus didn't promise me that.

Jesus said in John 16:33:

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

Jesus did promise me peace despite the trouble (or disappointments) I will face in this world, and He said to not be afraid. To take heart. To find strength and hope in the fact that He overcame the world, so in Him, I can overcome, too! This doesn't mean happily ever after. It means sustaining faith when the situation is dark and disappointing.

From this we learn that we too can get thrown in the fiery furnace, like the 3 Hebrew boys, and find peace, hope, and boldness in the truth that Jesus will be IN the fire with us.

Are you in the fire? Have peace and take heart.

We too can get thrown into the lion's den and find peace, hope, and boldness that God will shut the mouths of the lions.

Are you surrounded by lions? Have peace and take heart.

We too can be frustrated while Jesus takes a nap on our boat in the middle of life's storm. You may want to scream: Hello, Jesus! Why are you sleeping on me when I need you the most? Are you in a storm?

Instead of screaming at Jesus, have peace and take heart-- and tell the wind and waves to cease in Jesus' name.

Maybe you're plagued by life's disappointments, too. And you're saying:

Vikki, I took that Purity + Peace Bible study and I was left deflated. My life got harder. My soul feels drier. The furnace was hot. The lions were scary. The waves were high. The wind was loud. And Jesus was....silent.

Let me remind you:

Difficulties of this world are opportunities for Jesus to show his divine power.

Without the fiery furnace, there is no awe and wonder when the Hebrew boys step out unscathed.

Without the lion's den, there is no awe and wonder when Daniel steps out untouched.

Without the storm, there is no miracle of Jesus calming it with his words.

Without my quarter-life crisis, there would be no Purity + Peace Bible study.

If Jesus can turn these extenuating circumstances into miraculous moments, all for His glory, what more can God do with the disappointments you and I are facing today?

Will you allow Christ to use your disappointing season as an opportunity to reveal His divine power?

I pray you do!