Another year has come and gone. To be perfectly honest, I feel like we were celebrating the start of 2011 just a few months ago. There's an old saying which says, "Time flies when you're having fun." But truth be told, I've found time just flies. It doesn't matter whether or not you're actually having fun. Yet the problem with this is for those who have struggled through a difficult year, it's easy to look back over the year and be disgusted with one's life and the progress which was made. It's easy to get discouraged, especially at this time of year.
It has been three years since I became so horribly sick that I had to move in with my parents and quit my job. I know what it is like to wonder if life will ever get better. For the person who is chronically ill, this is especially true. Having an illness is like riding a roller coaster. There are good days and bad days - times of suffering and times of joy. But the problem with this roller coaster ride is we never asked to get on this ride, and now that we're on we can't get off. Yet through my three years of riding this roller coaster, God has shown me an important truth, and He did it by reminding me off a lesson I once learned in a science class.
It has been three years since I became so horribly sick that I had to move in with my parents and quit my job. I know what it is like to wonder if life will ever get better. For the person who is chronically ill, this is especially true. Having an illness is like riding a roller coaster. There are good days and bad days - times of suffering and times of joy. But the problem with this roller coaster ride is we never asked to get on this ride, and now that we're on we can't get off. Yet through my three years of riding this roller coaster, God has shown me an important truth, and He did it by reminding me off a lesson I once learned in a science class.
I'll never forget sitting in Earth Science my senior year in high school learning about how pearls are formed. Pearls are found in oysters, but they're not found in every oyster. Actually, they're not very common, which is why jewelry made with pearls is so expensive. When the shell of an oyster is invaded by a foreign substance, such as a grain of sand, the oyster's body becomes irritated. To deal with this irritation, the oyster begins to release healing fluids. All of the oyster's resources go to healing the irritation. Slowly, as the irritant is covered, a pearl forms. I would imagine the oyster doesn't like the irritant and the pain it creates. Yet without this pain, there would be no pearl. And the pearl is what makes the oyster stand out from the rest.
Like the oyster, many of us have irritants and pain in our lives. The irritants bother us, and we wish it would simply go away. But to our frustration, God often chooses to leave the irritants in our lives. Yet like the oyster, God uses the irritation and pain to bring healing to our troubled minds and souls. He uses the suffering to take us from living a mediocre life, to making us stand out from everyone else. God uses chronic illnesses, loss of a job, a rebellious child, etc. to bring pearls into our lives.
Oswald Chambers once wrote, "At times God will appear like an unkind friend, but He is not; He will appear like an unnatural father, but He is not; He will appear like an unjust judge, but He is not. The time will come when everything will be explained." Whether or not 2012 turns into a great year for you or into a year you would just like to forget, there will come a day when your suffering ends and you see how God turned your pain into a pearl. It's no wonder the first thing we will see when we reach our heavenly home is pearly gates welcoming the wounded and bruised.
"God will never walk away from His people, never desert His precious people...If God hadn't been there for me, I never would have made it. The minute I said, "I'm slipping, I'm falling," Your love, God, took hold and held me fast. When I was upset and beside myself, You calmed me down and cheered me up." ~ Psalm 94:14, 17-19 (The Message)
(c) January 4, 2012
Like the oyster, many of us have irritants and pain in our lives. The irritants bother us, and we wish it would simply go away. But to our frustration, God often chooses to leave the irritants in our lives. Yet like the oyster, God uses the irritation and pain to bring healing to our troubled minds and souls. He uses the suffering to take us from living a mediocre life, to making us stand out from everyone else. God uses chronic illnesses, loss of a job, a rebellious child, etc. to bring pearls into our lives.
Oswald Chambers once wrote, "At times God will appear like an unkind friend, but He is not; He will appear like an unnatural father, but He is not; He will appear like an unjust judge, but He is not. The time will come when everything will be explained." Whether or not 2012 turns into a great year for you or into a year you would just like to forget, there will come a day when your suffering ends and you see how God turned your pain into a pearl. It's no wonder the first thing we will see when we reach our heavenly home is pearly gates welcoming the wounded and bruised.
"God will never walk away from His people, never desert His precious people...If God hadn't been there for me, I never would have made it. The minute I said, "I'm slipping, I'm falling," Your love, God, took hold and held me fast. When I was upset and beside myself, You calmed me down and cheered me up." ~ Psalm 94:14, 17-19 (The Message)
(c) January 4, 2012
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