Becoming…
We all go through hard times. You’re either in one, just got out of one or about to enter one. Hard times are simply part of life here on earth.
My family and I took a vacation a while back. We went to the ocean. Sat on the beach and body surfed. Body surfing is one of our favorite things to do on the beach. I mean besides sunbathing and eating junk food. Now for anyone who doesn’t know what body surfing is; it’s when you tread water and wait for a big wave to come in and then jump up putting your body parallel to the wave and ride it out. Well on this particular day the tides were remarkably high. I mean, you barely got out of one wave and the next one was on you. Well, sometimes life can be like that. I mean you barely catch your breath and you get hit with something else. It sometimes can even feel like you’re going to drown. Anyone out there know what I mean? Been there done that? It just seems like one thing after another. Trials, trials, trials! It almost seems like someone is “out to get you”. I know I have felt that way many times. And I highly doubt I am the only one.
Sometimes I even wonder what the point is in all these trials. I mean is the suffering just for suffering sake, or what?!
But then I look at my family and think; for them I’d go through hell and back. So, is that the point in all this? To prove my love for them? Well that may be part of it. But really couldn’t I just work hard, spend time with them and tell them how much I love them? No, that can’t be all that’s to it.
I have gone through quite a bit of trials in my life. And some of them were what I call “wasted pain”. You know, the ones you put yourself into, over and over again. Without learning a darn thing. I have done a lot of what you might call, pointless repeats. Anyone else hearing me?
However, I have learned a thing or two. Most of it the “hard way”, you might say. So, here is one lesson I’ve learned; our maker will not waste pain. But He doesn’t force it on us either. We can choose to remain immature, incomplete, and lacking. Which just leaves us with “wasted pain”.
Or we could allow Him to mold us. So that we grow. We learn, we become. And continue becoming. But stagnant waters just grow stale and bitter.
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Of course, if your one of those who believe we are just an accident; do something for me; I got this idea from a friend recently; go buy a cheap watch, brake it into pieces, dump it into a cup, shake it up and throw it on the table. Let me know if it falls back into place or if you think in a million years it will find its way back together. Is this world not, are we not, more complicated than a watch?
Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying all the bad is done to us for our own good.
My little sister lost her oldest son a few years back. I would never tell her that God took her son for her own good. That would just be cruel and downright ignorant.
No, some of the pain and suffering is just because we live in a fallen, imperfect world. But, most of the pain and suffering in this world is from human depravity. A lot of us cannot even muster up a smile for our fellow human beings. We strut around with the “me first” attitude. “I deserve the best”. Me, me, me. Why should I be kind? I’m in a bad mood so why should I smile at you or treat you with any kind of dignity. After all I am feeling bad today. Now I’m not saying we should be fake. Just be kind. After all we don’t know what someone else might be going through. And I’m certainly not saying that I do this perfectly myself. After all I am only human, and I am still just “becoming”. But I am saying that I am trying, and I hope you are too. If you read my first article you know that I truly believe that a simple smile will do you and everyone else wonders. Change your life even.
Yet still there will be trials. And I am not saying to just “grin and bear it”. No, quite the opposite in fact. What I’m saying is don’t let it be “wasted pain”.
My little sister for example, is able to comfort others who have been through the same pain. And they are able to comfort her. It’s a bond that no one wishes to become a part of, including yours truly. But the alternative would be to simply keep it to yourself and waste away. My little sister is one of the strongest and kindest people I know.
Trials are not fun. Pain is not fun. But we all must go through them. And to waste them is just pointless.
So, keep loving and keep
Becoming….
