Day 11 - Trials of Life

During this time, many are going to face trials. How they come through them will depend upon how they view them.

For many, trials will feel like climbing a very steep mountain. Every day will take enormous effort. It will be hard. You’ll get puffed out. You will feel tired and even exhausted. It might feel scary. You will worry about what’s ahead and how far there still is to climb. You will want this pain to end as soon as possible.

However, there is another way of looking at our trials, and for that we need to go to the gym. Trials, if looked at differently, can be seen as opportunities to grow in strength.

“But I don’t want to grow in strength,” many will say. “I’m very happy being puny thank you very much.”

But this gym is there to help you discover the strength and stamina and perseverance and courage that lays within you as a seed longing to be opened. During this time, God is planting that seed and taking the greatest care of it, for he knows it’s DNA and all you will grow into. He knows we need strength for the weights we might one day have to lift.

And so we enter the gym and we begin in the weights section. We see these huge weights and laugh that we could ever lift anything as heavy. However, he doesn’t start us lifting weights he knows we could never manage. He starts with weights he knows won’t break our backs but will develop the muscles in our arms, legs and body. He is the Master gym trainer. He knows the perfect balance of what we need and the gym equipment required to develop those particular muscles.

At first it is hard and we ache for days. However gradually over time, what we were unable to face a few years ago, we now take in our stride. Year by year, the strength of our muscles increase and we lift weights which cause us little discomfort. Then we notice that we can also lift the weights for others who struggle with the loads they had been asked to bear. We long to help them, but remember, they too might have been given those weights to help them grow into a stronger person.

So, during this time of mountain climbing and hard work, recognise that your strength is being developed and stretched, enabling you to take in your stride things that may need lifting in the future.

How do you view trials? Have you ever seen them as opportunities to gain in strength, resilience, perseverance, stamina and courage?

Think of a trial you are currently going through. Which muscles do you believe are being stretched in order to grow?

Looking back at other trials, which character traits were developed, enabling you to take some of life’s knockbacks more easily in your stride?