In our house we strive for perfection.
This may surprise many of you that know me because I am not a perfectionist in most senses of the word. My house is hardly ever totally clean, I will gaze at a dirty sink for days before I get fed up and clean it, I can turn a blind eye to the stains in my carpet for months and I don't even remember the last time my boys made their beds. As for ironing.... that happens maybe twice a year... sorry mom.
My house is not perfect, my appearance is not perfect, my children are not perfect, my husband is not perfect. I'm not striving for outward perfection but an inward perfection.
Let me explain.
We are facing quite a storm in our family. One of our most important members is battling for life. It's a battle that has lasted for years. The battle ebbs and flows. Sometimes it is extremely intense, sometimes we feel a bit of relief and can take a breath. Somedays it feels so intense like one wave after another pounding our boat.
Our story is not unique. Everyone faces storms. Guaranteed. If you are alive and have been alive for more than a few years you have faced storms. Some storms are bigger than others. Not many people like these kinds of storms. They are hard, exhausting, overwhelming and sometimes debilitating.
I've come to have a different view of these kinds of storms.
James 1 in my bible says: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds...."
Ummm.. Joy? Really James? Joy? Didn't you mean consider it pure torture? Maybe pure frustration? Pure hell? Surely you didn't mean Joy!
Yep, Joy!! I'm getting there.
As you read further in James 1 he explains why trials = joy.... "because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish it's work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
This word trial is closely related to the word temptation but with a very important difference. I found this quote as I was studying this.
"The difference between a trial or test and a temptation is found in the testers motivations and expectation; the devil tempts that the believer might fail God's standards of faith and so sin; God tests that he might determine and sharpen true character, with no focus on making the believer fail."(zondervan exhaustive NIV concordance)
James goes on to say later in chapter one "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
You see this word perfect can also be translated "mature". These storms are good!!! They are developing one of the most profoundly effective and important skills any human can acquire, perseverance!
To stay, remain, live, dwell, abide.... to have the ability to stick around, to see something through to the end, even if the end is no where in sight. It's the stuff of headlines. No one wants to stick around anymore. Hollywood has decided to immortalize these people whose lives are a picture of anything but perseverance, both on and off the screen. Their lives show it too! They are selfish, living from one shallow relationship to another. They are longing for pleasure but never truly finding it because they are deceived into thinking pleasure is found in serving yourself. They lack maturity in every way.
Then there are these stories of people who stuck around. Heroes! The ones that stayed with their spouse who was suffering a terrible disease that left them incapacitated. The soldier that wouldn't leave their dying friend on the battle field. The mother that chose life for her child that would be born without limbs even though she knew he would face incredible odds and now her full grown son is changing the world with his message of hope.
I'm not afraid of these storms anymore. They are hard, they are life draining, they are exhausting. BUT they are also perfecting! These trials are making us perfect and the Lord is using them to make us mature, to sharpen us so that when we come out the other side we will actually have something to give the ones around us who will surely face their own storms.
That is heroic, that is the perfection I am striving for.
No comments:
Post a Comment