what is the worst thing you ever had to deal with?

I'm curious what are some challenges in life you had to deal with and how God helped you overcome?
I was at church and my pastor said that his pastoral intern from many years ago died at age 53 from cancer. The patient found out in 3 weeks it was over. So sad.

50% of marriage end in divorce and I was so close to going there but held on.

I've never had anything really bad to deal with myself. Not bragging... It's not anything I have done that has caused it... But I have generally had a peaceful life.

You are obviously single and without kids.

The hardest thing I've gone through was the pain of my children going through a divorce.

I'm speaking out of turn here, and @Lynx, you can yell at me for butting in.

After spending time with Lynx and other friends, along with his family and church family in real life, I know he indeed has gone through a lot of hard things. I remember the look on one of his family member's face when one particular event was mentioned. And my heart broke for their family having to go through that.

It's just that Lynx has a kind of personality, faith, and relationship with God to where he either doesn't mention the really hard things (that I'm not sure how I would have dealt with myself,) and he's able to allow God to get him to a point where he sees it as a bridge crossed, with no need to bring it up again unless doing so will help someone else.

This is one of the things I admire most about him -- and wish I could be more like.

This is a great question.

I guess I have different categories:

A. The hardest times centered around my divorce:

1. Coming home from what I thought was a normal day of work and school, and finding half the house gone.

2. Finding out he left for someone else.

3. Going to court and having him tell the judge and the court that he didn't know how to talk to me anymore. I felt thrown away.

I always say he took my soul with him when he left, and God has spent all these years helping me try to grow a new one. I know that isn't Biblically accurate, but boy, did it ever feel that way. But I have plenty of my own faults, and have told God a hundred thousand times I wish I could go back and change all the things I did wrong, too.

B. The times my parents have had medical emergencies that came out of nowhere and we didn't know if they'd make it.

C. The deaths of my beloved grandparents.

D. Finding out someone I'm close to is about to walk through an unknown and undeserved fire.

I know God is faithful and gets us through (and yes, the people involved are all Christians.) But it's one of those times when, even though you know the truth of all the passages saying that God will be with you, but that doesn't mean that you, the people involved, or the situation it surrounds will ever be the same.

The scariest part to me is the unknown; the second scariest part is learning how to adjust to what becomes a "new normal."

Thanks very much for the thought-provoking thread!

Oh yeah... Divorce.

My mother cheated on Dad, a pregnancy resulted, then she divorced him. That was a bit rough.

I was 11 at the time though, so I didn't have any major problems I personally had to contend with. Rinsing cloth diapers out was the worst part... That is STILL the most disgusting thing I have ever done.

So I guess that counts as the worst thing I've ever had to deal with. But we had soap and I scrubbed under my nails very well, lots and lots of times until my half brother got big enough to stop doing that to diapers.

Yup. But you already knew that. I sure haven't been keeping it a secret.

I know this was hard on you but I was actually thinking of another event... I hope I'm not getting too far into your business.

One of your super powers is that you don't wallow in the past, or repeatedly talk about the tough things that have happened in your life -- unlike me, lol.

In fact, I hardly, if ever, hear you talk about the things you've been through that I know would haunt me if I had been through it.

Your family has definitely had more than its fair share.

Life happens. In a broken world, sometimes it sucks rotten eggs. Some people have intentionally done me wrong, or deliberately done wrong in a way that hurts me. Some people I love have died.

But talking about it doesn't help and does make my blood pressure go up. And it's not very good for my digestion.

One of the hardest thing that I've gone through was the pain of me going through a divorce. A few years later I realized that it was a blessing from God.

And I HAVE had an objectively more peaceful life than almost everybody I know. At least so far.

Either that or a lot of people I know are making a lot of stuff up just so they can complain about it...

I apologize. What I was inarticulately trying to say is that it is easier to accept things that life throws at us than to see innocent children endure hardship. You obviously have been in that situation.

Yeah. It hurts to see people making mistakes you warned them about, and getting hurt. It hurts even more when they get hurt and it ain't even their fault. And both hurt more than if you had got hurt yourself.

I had an uncle drown. he was young. he was almost my current age.

the hardest thing in my life was my porn addiction. 30% of teens, and 36% of christian teens have/are addicted to pornography.
it drove a wedge between me and god. I stumbled on my own for years, looking for purpose, couldnt find it. tried to kill myself when my hopelessness reached peak depths. all while maintaining the image of a perfect, innocent christian teen. until three months ago, all the messages I had heard, everything, culminated in me breaking. I talked. for an hour. to someone I trust. and then I got saved.
best decision of my life. I had already set that as last week of my life if something didn't change.

Take your pick:
As a kid my mom began developing different health issues and at times being in the hospital. She caught a bad disease at her job and required a liver/lung transplant.
My dad had to keep working but was dedicated to taking care of her. So I didn't have to do much.
But one night it was just her and I. She ended up passing out, falling onto the side of the tub. I called 911 and had to move her to a better position. Not easy to move a person that's passed out as a scrawny teen. I'd never had to deal with something like this and was panicked to be responsible, as well as worrying about my mom.
My parents picked out a house to retire in after spending months looking. That same night she died. I was 21. So I'd spent 12 years watching my mom grow sicker and sicker till she died.

Also at 21 I had a fiance. She was preparing to move to my area, found a job, put money down on an apartment. We went to get her things and once we packed it all up she told me she wasn't ready to leave yet and was staying behind. Crushed me.
When my mom died she said she'd come to the funeral, a 4 hour drive for her. But she had bought something very expensive and I explained there was no way we could afford it when she did decide to move down.
I told her I didn't want to be married and work constantly and never see each other. She disagreed. When I insisted she'd have to give up her expensive purchase she became angry with me and refused to come to my mom's funeral.
A few months later she ghosted me while all along acting as if things were good between us.

Developed hypertension in my 20s that kick started my anxiety problems that I still contend with decades later.

Hypertension caused kidney problems and in my early 30s I had to go on dialysis and wait for a transplant. 4 years of dialysis. The whole time I was in and out of the hospital and ER and doctors offices for a variety of problems. Felt like literally half of my time was in one of those places, the hospital was a second home.
The worst of it started a few months after moving in with my dad. A retired senior at this point. He ended up needing to take care of me. After spending a decade taking care of my mom, who needed a transplant, but died, now his son is in the same situation. No doubt scary.

The hypertension caused the kidney issues, the kidney issues caused hip problems which require me to need both hips replaced but due to the meds I take for my transplant I'm at higher risk of infection, so they're wary of giving me surgery unless required. 8 years later and it's still not required, but affects my life every day.
As a result of the meds, I developed mouth cancer, needed to have surgery and radiation treatment. The surgery and radiation screwed up my ability to speak and had numerous affects on my face which I put in a post recently.
My sister had developed cancer almost 1 year to the month I was diagnosed, but a year earlier. They gave her 3 months to live. She didn't last longer than a month. So I had those thoughts in mind when I was diagnosed.
2 years later (a few months ago) I was told I may have brain cancer. It took a month for me to get the results. I did not have it.
Mind you months before this my father's mind and health deteriorated enough to require him to have to be taken from his home, where we lived together for 15 year, to go into a long term care facility. Leaving me alone in the house.
I've been watching his mental capacity slipping away with every visit. I doubt he'll survive the year. And I've not been able to visit him in weeks, which sucks.
And my siblings, the only family that talks to me, think I'm making excuses for not going to see him and pressure me.
I live on disability that won't last forever and is not enough for me to afford an apartment and pay my bills.
My siblings often show little concern regarding my health issues and seem to think I hide behind them as an excuse to not do things.
They boss me around and try to dictate my life and sometimes treat me like an idiot. I had a different father than they did, but we grew up together still. So they're much closer to each other and back each other up. Also both are control freaks and my brother has power of attorney over everything of my dad's.
We got into a disagreement a few nights ago and he got mad and said he wanted me out of the house and that he didn't care what happened to me. Which, for me means living in my car (for the second time in my life) but having all my health problems and needing medical supplies delivered as well as medications. Needing access to running water and to electricity for health related issues.
They are the only two people I communicate with locally, as well. Only other person I talk to is in another country. So I will have no one locally if I have to move into my car.

Yes, second time in my car. At 22 I moved across the country and moved in with a woman. The only person I knew there. After 5 years she managed to move to a new apartment, where she decided she didn't want me to continue staying with her. But wanted to continue dating. She told me this 2 weeks, maybe less, before she was to be out of her current apartment. And Only then because I mentioned my living in the new place.
I didn't have a lot of money but managed to find a room for rent I could afford. 6 months later they suddenly announced They were moving out of state in 2 weeks. I didn't have the money to put down on a new apartment and they wouldn't give me my initial down payment until they were literally minutes from driving off to move.
5 years I was in my car. It was a misdemeanor to sleep in your car there and I dealt with the police what seemed every month or two.
Add to that my gf would call me up nightly and complain about her life, sometimes for hours, then fall asleep when I finally started talking.
She was helpful at first at least. Letting me shower and take a nap during the day, letting me spend from morning to night in her place on weekends. Eventually that started get less and less. She started making excuses for why I couldn't come over. Or not letting me in as early on weekends. It eventually became so bad I would only see her once a week, where we would meet for lunch (that I was expected to pay for) and maybe watch a movie at her place. But she still liked to call and complain about how bad her life was. And denied that she had been pulling back on helping me.
When I finally gave up and decided to move across the country to live with my dad, she suddenly found a way to let me stay with her. Suddenly she was all lovey dovey again. But it wasn't long she began complaining about the cost of me being there. I had lost my job and car and had no money, hence my decision to move. I finally decided to make the move after that started.
And special mention, when I was in my car I had to have surgery, appendix removed. Even when I was released from the hospital she wouldn't let me stay even one night. I spent the first night or two in my car. Another friend of mine found out and her and her husband let me stay a few days in their apartment. Fed me without complaint. And even gave me some food for when I left. And her husband isn't even a friendly guy.
I could literally spend hours going over more things and including details and stories within the stories I've already shared. I left so much out. And didn't touch on other things.

So worst thing to happen in my life? Hard to pick just one.

After my marriage failed, my ex decided to disappear. I was especially torn because my son was 6 years old and I thought that he would suffer without me around. I grieved terribly. I complained to God. He said, "My Son died for you." Ah. Well. I'd best stop complaining.

I knew the secret of forgiving others, so that was not a problem. I had no idea if I'd ever see my kids again. 15 years later, by a miracle I came across them again. God answered my prayers. My son is fine. He worked for Apple for 8 years until he went for a better job. We get on well enough, although he is not saved. My daughter lives a long way away and we have little contact.

I have discovered that every trial we endure is used by God to deliver us from the grip of self and lead us into a deeper walk with Himself - if we respond in faith. If we get bitter and resentful, we will suffer much more than the original trial. God does not punish us- we are more than capable of making a mess of our lives all on our own. God just leaves us to whatever we have chosen. That's punishment enough.

The majority of my life has been filled with many forms of mental, emotional, and spiritual suffering. From the age of 3 until I was 14, my Mom was barely around, leaving my younger sister and I to be primarily raised by Mom's extremely legalistic and fear-minded aunt and uncle. They never said it directly to me, but the impression I always got from them was "if you do or say anything we don't like, even if its not explicitly against the Bible, you are going straight to hell." Additionally, I was molested at age six, by a man whose face I still can't remember. As a result, my perception of sexual matters became extremely warped very early on; when I hit puberty, I was terrified of my own desires. But at the same time, the rabid lust I felt inside which refused to leave me alone led me straight into a long-term porn addiction. I also spent about ten years immersed in watching horror films, finding myself identifying with the killer characters more than their victims. Once that realization set in, I realized I was being filled with some very real darkness, so I left those movies behind.

When I was 20 years old, Mom and I got into a fight about responsibility, and she abandoned me at a homeless shelter. While there, I met a woman, and very quickly bonded with her emotionally over shared pain. But our initially platonic friendship soon became much more complicated, when she married another man. A few months after our time at the shelter, he was temporarily sent to prison, and she and I wound up sleeping together. Not long after that, he got out and she left me, feeling honor-bound to try and save her marriage. At the time, I felt like my soul was being ripped out. I raged against God, her, the world, and myself. I knew what we had done physically was wrong, but for me it wasn't only about that; I'd fallen for her at the shelter but was too scared to tell her. Her marriage soon ended for good though, and over the next 5 years we tried twice more to work things out. But everything ultimately crashed and burned, and I spent many years blaming myself for everything that happened.

Then in 2015, something else hit me like a ton of bricks: Mom was struck with a very sudden and aggressive form of lung cancer, dying within two weeks. This hurt me to my core, because we'd actually spent about 3 years repairing the emotional bridges that both of us had burned. But suddenly she was gone, and again every amount of pain I'd ever felt in my life burst forth like a geyser. I knew none of this was God's fault, but I still blamed Him for allowing it to happen. Now, almost a decade later, a cousin from my Dad's side of the family was recently placed on hospice care, after battling colon cancer for 27 months. My own prayer has been fairly simple: "God, please help me not to blame You when her time comes to pass."

So while I haven't suffered much externally like people in other countries, the internal equivalents have been very real. Most of my Mom's elders have since passed away, including her spiritually-abusive aunt and uncle. I know its not respectful to speak ill of the dead, but not having them around anymore has been a relief for me. I still struggle with a lot of memories from my childhood, and I often wonder where I ultimately belong. But I go to a relatively small community church now, and have several friends there. I attend a weekly grief-oriented support group, and I talk to God every day. I am not 100% whole by any means; there's still emotions and habits I often wrestle with. But I do believe that Jesus is with me, and as long as that remains true I can rest for the most part.

Know it alls Especially those who want to tell me their "interpretation" of Scripture.
Next are those who tell me who I should vote for.
This forum is full of know it alls in both areas.

Many things has happened in my life , to much to type . but I believe the worst thing that happened to me was when my mother died...She died aged 34 , I was three yrs of age...I have no memory of her whatsoever...But by Gods grace , He has blessed me beyond measure...I have 17 grandchildren , and two great grandchildren...God saved me when I was 55 yrs of age , I have not long turned 63...
Thank you for this thread @SoulSearch , a lovely thread to share our times of trouble with one another...xox...