I read this quote on Facebook this morning:
When God wants to make a mushroom, he does it overnight, but when he wants to make a giant oak, he takes a hundred years. Great souls are grown through struggles and storms and seasons of suffering. Be patient with the process.-Rick Warren
Such good perspective for me. I like things to be done quickly and seamlessly. Yet, from what I have gathered so far, life isn't like that. God could work that way all the time, but often times doesn't. He could have sent his people to the promised land the quick and direct way, but he chose to have them detour over and over again for 40 years. Jesus could have lived an easy and pain free life on earth, but he didn't. Instead, He was mocked, disregarded, tempted by satan in the wilderness, and persecuted to the point of death - for something He was not guilty of.
I heard a sermon the week before last. He said the life without struggle and pain would be easy. You would wake up, go to work, go home, do it again the next day. And that life would be boring. As much as we say we do, we don't really want a life free of trouble. Because then we don't experience the victory found only in Christ Jesus. In the struggle and pain, we see, we feel, we embrace the power of God. God's love is able to rescue us...even in the midst of trouble.
Isaiah 61:1-3 are some of my favorite verses.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.
Yes, I think I'll take the struggles and storms in order to become an oak tree rather than a mushroom.
I've always loved this quote from Mere Christianity: Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you though of -- throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.
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