I have been fortunate enough in my life to receive many advantages and blessings along the way. I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth, if that is what you are wondering. I was born in a relatively poor family. My grandfather was a laborer in the oil industry in Texas- He came home covered in oil every day. My father is African-American and my mom is Caucasian. This was not a popular mix in 1969 in the state of Texas. - My mom and dad split up when I was an infant and my grandparents and mom moved to California to find a place of acceptance-I did not know until I was an adult that my family packed up and moved everything from the life they knew so that I would not have to be raised in an overtly racist environment. Unbelievable! The ensuing life that I lived was one of tremendous difficulty for a child and especially an adolescent. Imagine the picture of a black kid with an all white family in the heart of the O.C. (That is Orange County California, by the way.) At the time, Orange County was the Republican/Conservative capital of Southern California. There was not much overt racism in the but there was plenty of covert racism.
The point of this is not to elicit pity at all. I deserve no ones pity and I deflect it at every opportunity. I had a good life. I lived among a family that was willing to give up everything so that I could live safely and comfortably. How many kids get that kind of special treatment? The point I am drawing here is that God intends for life to be the place he irons out our character and develops us for His purposes. I do not regret the challenges my family faced. I cherish those challenges as the means to God's ends in my life. The ends are not perfect, but that is because life is still happening to me. God is seeking my perfection every day. I will never attain perfection as we think about perfection today. But in the sense that Greek bears on this word, I seek it every day. Completion. Maturity. Wholeness. I believe this is possible. Perfection is not a pass/fail endeavor. It has gradients. It develops with time and work. This is what I hope for everyday. Growth....
If we do not accept and cherish the master/divine conspirators masterful work in our lives everyday life will appear completely futile. This is the place where atheism is fueled. God, if there is a god, has treated us all so poorly by allowing suffering and difficulty on the earth. I know, for those who support the atheist view, that this is but a fraction of the design and history of disbelief. The point is to those who seek to believe God- The darkness is real. Pain is real. Suffering and apparent injustice is real. But God is also real. He is the wisest and smartest of us all. Do we truly know the final result of suffering and difficulty? NO! As for my personal testimony, pain and suffering have been my best allies and teachers. I can't imagine life without them. Every good thing I have in my life has required pain to either gain or maintain. A few scriptures that I draw inspiration from:
1 Peter 1:6-9 (NIV)
6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
2 Corinthians 1:3-7 (NIV)
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
Jeremiah 18:1-6 (NRSV)
The Potter and the Clay
18 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 "Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words." 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
We are all clay on the master potter's wheel- I believe we can either entrust ourselves to him and be molded into something beautiful or we can oppose and mistrust him and be made mush again and again. Suffering does not guarantee a positive outcome. Suffering in and of itself is not virtuous. It is the one who suffers well that gains virtue. Suffering is not some cosmic joke God is playing on humanity. It is one of God's means to gain perfection for those of us who would be trained by it. Disciplined children have the most hopeful future. Are you in?
Hebrews 12:3-13 (NRSV)
3 Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners,c so that you may not grow weary or lose heart. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children—
"My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
or lose heart when you are punished by him;
6 for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves,
and chastises every child whom he accepts."
7 Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? 8 If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children. 9 Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness. 11 Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
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