The lived Christian life shows us that some of the things we
think are harmful are actually intended as good, to grow us up.
Here are six of those hard life events, that, though they’re
hard situations that feel harmful, they end up doing us no harm at all:
1.
Loss — in all its myriad forms — the
grief in losing a precious loved one does us no harm. In fact, it’s inevitable. Loss doesn’t have to define us, but it should
refine us, bringing us to a knowledge
of our own limitedness of capacity of control over this life. Our griefs should facilitate memorials to our
losses, for true healing only comes when we’ve memorialised what we’ve lost,
and who we couldn’t love more and anymore.
See how, despite the pain of loss, it does us no harm, and actually does
us some good? Indeed, loss is the common
experience of all. A healed grief makes
it possible to thank God for what we once had.
That’s a deeper learning in the destiny of every life under God.
2.
Change — involving its own varietals of
loss, for what’s gone and what’s new, that must now be adjusted to — brings no
harm in and of itself. The more we
change and adapt to, the more we realise we can do change, and such a
knowledge is the epitome of empowerment.
If change can’t kill our courage, nothing can. Adapting to change brings us no harm at all, even
though it takes both faith and patience in the adjustment. Change is actually healthy, long-term, because
what’s embraced makes for joy; a well-earned reprieve from the monotony of life.
3.
Rejection — sooner or later, some
massive rejection will come our way. It
rocks our world, and we experience myriad levels of grief. But rejection does us no harm if we remember
that, the most important person, God Incarnate Himself, is the only One, whilst
we’re alive, who would never reject us.
To this we put all other rejections in context, and we find that human
rejection can no longer decimate us like it did. Rejection, in the light of Christ’s
acceptance, only makes us stronger, and it does us no harm at all.
4.
Anxiety — never killed us. Feeling anxious is the common lot of
humanity, and, though some are afflicted with anxiety disorders, it is God’s
opportunity for everyone to learn each individual’s coping. We cannot learn resilience without being
placed in that fire of anxiousness. So,
without anxiousness we couldn’t learn coping or how to overcome our weakness in
His strength. See how anxiety is good?
5.
Missing Out — this is something that often
causes anxiety, for none of us want to miss out on a single thing. But the fact is, we must miss out on some
things, because we cannot do it all.
Every day we miss out, and in many ways.
And God’s design for such a state is we would see that covetousness is a
sin that kills joy for greed. It does us
no harm to miss out. Indeed, it does us
good to miss out every single day of our lives.
In missing out is peace.
6.
Hard Work — there are seasons in life
where we have to work especially hard just to stay afloat. Then, if we’re really fortunate, we come to
understand that a willingness to work hard is the virtue of diligence that will
evermore protect us. Diligence is a
shelter. Hard work does us no harm, and
indeed it teaches us how to do life the supreme way! — to experience joy even
in the midst of enduring difficulty.
The principle remains the same from
birth to death: many situations we inwardly despise may actually be outwardly
good for us. We learn this as we merge
endurance with hopefulness.
© 2016 Steve Wickham.
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