If you’re weary of “nothing happening” days and feeling frustrated for change, stop and rethink.
Think back to the time(s) a crisis of some sort caused you to wish you could go back a day. Or a week. Or a year. Back to before.
Before those medical tests.
Before that pink slip.
Before that stroke.
Before the “whatever” that seemed to come out of nowhere and turn your life upside down.
Next comes the nagging procession of “what ifs” and “if onlys”.
Do struggles ever have a purpose?
Here’s an old tale that may give us a bit of an answer:
One day a youngster burst into his home with excitement and rushed to show his mother his latest discovery. “What’s this, Mom?”
“That’s called a cocoon, Son. You might say it’s a butterfly-in-the-making. There’s a butterfly growing inside the shell, which protects it until the butterfly inside is ready to come out.”
One day, the boy noticed the cocoon starting to move. He watched and waited, trying his best to be patient. After awhile he said to himself, “That poor little butterfly needs help!”
So he found a pair of scissors and carefully cut away the hard brown shell. Then he cried, “Fly! Fly!” But the sorry-looking creature never did.
He ran to his mom and said, “Come look! I tried to make it easier for the butterfly to get out, but it just won’t fly. Why not?”
Mom hugged him and said, “You tried to help, Honey, but God created the butterfly so that when it’s just about ready to come out, it kicks and it pushes against the cocoon’s walls, over and over.
“It can take a long time to break through the shell, but the butterfly needs every kick and every push to get strong. Strong enough to break free of the shell so it can fly.”
What about you and me?
What if our down days, our boring days, and even our struggles actually help us grow strong–and strengthen our faith in God, too?
A Bible verse that has come to mean a lot to me is Ecclesiastes 7:14:
When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other.
Still, life can be hard. At first we may think ourselves able to handle a challenge with no problem. Before long we find out we’re not strong enough on our own. As never before, we turn to prayer.
I once heard a Bible teacher say, “No experience is ever wasted in the life of a Christian” and I thought, well, that’s nice.
By now I’ve lived long enough to understand that trials along the way do help develop my inner strength and my faith.
Living it out
Here’s how I understand it. If we’re still breathing and we have a pulse, God has something for us to do. Think about these Bible verses, for example:
For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10
As your days, so shall your strength be. Deuteronomy 33:25
Whatever comes, we’re not on our own
By now I’ve learned to pray I will appreciate each day while I am living it.
Years ago I tacked these lines by Mary Jean Iron to my bulletin board. Maybe they will speak to your heart as they do to mine.
Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are …
Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect Tomorrow.
One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in my pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.
May those simple words remind us to live each day as if it were God’s precious gift to us. Because it is.
(Even the days we label boring.)
Wishing you peace and JOY in every day,
Lenore
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