Faith conquers despair
Craig Barton struggled with his vocation his whole life. While he hung in there and usually made decent money, he often asked himself “Why am I so unhappy?”
Craig was proud that he was able to support his wife and three children on a job based 100% on commission. Craig’s family always had anything they wanted, but Craig was miserable on the inside. He didn’t realize that misery on the inside was manifesting to the outside, slowly, but surely, and one day his wife told him that she wanted a divorce. Craig was shocked and absolutely devastated!
Within one month of that news, he learned that his friend, and owner of the company he worked for, was dying of a brain tumor. Craig’s back was against the wall; he was suicidal. All he could think was, “I can’t kill myself; I have three kids.” It was a struggle to do even simple things like laundry.
The first thing Craig did was to take a local job (that he hated) just to be around people. He searched the internet everyday reaching for anybody that might be able to help him. The pain was so intense, Craig can still remember many specific situations vividly. It was during one of those vividly painful situations that he called Craig Nathanson. He still remembers the negative words he was using, and Craig Nathanson reframing them for him. Being a salesman, Craig Barton knew all about reframing and he realized right there that he had better work on reframing his inner man. He thought he was a strong man of faith, but he was coming very close to losing that, too. Craig Nathanson helped him to discover what he wanted to focus on—real estate—and he came to the discovery that the Bible is all about reframing the inner man!
With this combination Craig felt he couldn’t lose. He worked on real estate, and on his soul, everyday. He reframed and believed to the extent that, if this didn’t work and God didn’t live up to his part of the covenant, he would surely have been completely devastated. It was frightening, but Craig was overcoming his fears through the strength he was gaining in his soul.
Things started to happen, and Craig would often get something going just at the right time. Even though he had deals working, the money wasn’t coming in fast enough. Living on credit cards is a challenge, but Craig knew his faith wouldn’t be denied. Then it happened: a deal closed here, and a deal closed there, and boom: his credit cards were paid off and Craig had money in the bank.
Craig now knows he has a great life ahead of him. Even though we sometimes go through so much pain, we all need to remember we have so much to be thankful for.
What can we learn from Craig Barton’s story?
When you have faith in yourself and others, magical things can happen in your life, despite the odds!