Popular American evangelist Joel Osteen has gone on a trip down memory lane as he recalls all of the lawsuits he dealt with in life. Looking back, Osteen remembers having a difficult time dealing with them. But he still feels thankful that God gave him the opportunity to test his strength during his trials.
"A few years after Victoria and I were married, we sold our house and moved into a new one. One day, there was a knock on the door. A policeman was standing there. My heart started beating fast. He smiled and handed me some papers and said kind of lightly, 'Somebody must really not like you,'" shared Osteen on his blog.
It was the Christian speaker's very first lawsuit, and he found out that the people who bought their old house are suing everybody—from the builder, architect, real estate agent, plumber, and the Osteens because of the house's faulty plumbing.
Osteen was certain he and his family weren't at fault; the plumbing worked fine for him and Victoria while they were still living in the old house. Despite this assurance, however, he could not help but worry about that lawsuit.
"But for six months, we were dealing with that, and my stomach was in knots! I was so worried. At 26 years old, I thought that was the worst thing that could ever happen to me," he recalled.
A few weeks before he went to give his first deposition in front of a lawyer to tell them what had happened, Osteen felt extremely nervous. He studied and prepared all of the documents thoroughly, and after the deposition, he was so wiped out that he could not even drive himself home.
"That seemed like the biggest waste of time and energy to me; so much unnecessary heartache and stress. I didn't see how anything productive could ever come out of that. But in every valley, you're gaining something. You may not realise it, but there's a purpose," Osteen maintained.
Thirteen years since that lawsuit, the Osteen couple just acquired their current building—the former Compaq Center. Again, a company filed a lawsuit to keep them from moving in. It was a difficult situation than the plumbing issue he first dealt with. In fact, it was even more of a big deal given its importance to Osteen's ministry.
However, when he gave his deposition to the lawyers, Osteen was surprised to find out that he was not nervous at all.
"I was confident, I was prepared, I had experience. I had been there before. I knew exactly what to expect. There was a purpose for that valley 13 years earlier. I didn't see it at the time. I let it stress me out, steal my joy, and now I realise it was a valley of blessing," he said.
Osteen is urging fellow Christians not to let trials upset them, because God has a purpose for everything. It might not be evident what the trials will be for right now, but people need to trust God and be assured of victory in the end.
