Made Perfect

“Count it all joy,” James says, “when you fall into various trials.” This was YouVersion’s verse of the day on the day I left home for deployment. It isn’t an easy command, but it is a command. Mind you, James doesn’t say we need to feel happy, or act like we’re not bothered, when we encounter trials. He seems to be talking more of a mental category here. Even through our tears, we are to remind ourselves that this situation is joyful. Why? Because it produces patience – endurance – and if we allow it to, patience will make us perfect.

It doesn’t get easier…

How does it do that? Paul tells us in Romans that suffering produces endurance, which produces character, which produces hope – and hope does not disappoint. Normally, I don’t like to write too much on this subject, because I haven’t suffered that much in my life, and I don’t feel qualified. But these two men suffered far more than I probably ever will, and they also say that we grow through suffering. Suffering, in fact, seems to be a necessary part of maturity in Christ.

I suppose I knew this, if I’d stopped to think about it. The times I’ve grown most in life are the times I’ve been uncomfortable. The times I’ve learned the most, the times I’ve come out of the strongest, were the times I was thrown into something I really didn’t like and wasn’t sure I could do.

I suppose a part of me was hoping that somewhere along the line, this wouldn’t be necessary, that I could take the path of least resistance and still grow as a person. But when I think about it, I really can’t see it happening. I don’t build muscle by doing 15 minutes of light stretching every morning. I build muscle because I deadlift.

…you get stronger

How could I learn to be comfortable in new situations if I were never pulled out of my comfort zone? How could I learn perspective if I never took on greater challenges? How could I learn courage if I never faced any risks? How could I learn trust without ever needing anything? How could I learn endurance if I never faced hardship?

How could I learn about peace that passes understanding if that peace were never challenged? How could I learn the depths of joy unless I plumbed them from places of sorrow? How could I learn sympathy without myself feeling pain? How could I learn sacrifice if it were never required? And how could I be a mature person without understanding these things? If Christ couldn’t avoid the cup, why do I expect to?

No Going Back

It’s funny what you remember about your childhood. One of my earlier memories comes from when I was about five. When I was little, my mom taught me to read and my dad taught me math. We worked through books of problems. I remember going back through one of these books from awhile before and carefully erasing all the answers I’d written in.

I distinctly remember why I was doing this. It was because I was tired of trying to learn the new things my dad was teaching me. They were hard! I thought if I erased the answers in the earlier book, we could go back and do those easier problems instead. But that’s not the way it works, is it?

And thank goodness for that! Imagine if now, at 25, I was still going back to do the same math problems I did when I was four! I would never have learned multiplication and division, much less geometry and calculus! Thank goodness my dad made me keep going, even when I cried and yelled and accused him (extremely unfairly) of not loving me. Thank goodness!

The Forge

And thank God he does the same thing! I don’t like suffering any more than the next person. Knowing the pain has a purpose in no way lessens it. But when I was little, I prayed and told God to make me his instrument, whatever it took. I asked him to shape me. And thank God, he continues to answer my prayer no matter how much I cry and yell! Thank God, who when I made that commitment took me at my word even when I didn’t know what I was saying. Thank God, who suffers with me and yet fills me with his joy. Thank God, who takes the troubles of this world and sanctifies them by using them to conform me to his image!

Sometimes, in life, I feel like I’m being attacked on all sides. The enemy is casting fiery darts my way, and everything is in flames, and he just keeps turning up the heat. And God allows it. Why? Because he is turning that heat of Satan’s to good, using it to forge me into a vessel for his will. Satan can bring the heat, but he cannot take us out of the master’s hand. And in his hand, the hotter the fire, the purer the final product.

This, then, is the best explanation I have for how suffering helps us grow. God uses pain to forge us into people strong enough to bear it. That doesn’t lessen the suffering. We must still bear the weight of this world’s problems; God does not remove it. But as we carry it, he carries us.