It’s Sunday morning. 10:30 a.m.
I’m not normally home right now, and I’m not normally writing. I’m normally in church.
But since every germ within a hundred square miles seems to have invaded our home, I’m raising the white flag. We’re staying home today.
So, since I couldn’t go to church, I opted to listen to Joni Eareckson Tada online. I found this message on YouTube, called “A Deeper Healing.”
Nothing like listening to someone who has been a quadriplegic for 50 years to make me feel grateful for things I take for granted!
Why Must We Have Problems?
Why doesn’t God fix everything for us?
Listening to Joni describe her situation, I suddenly feel as though God has fixed a great deal for me already. He has fixed some of the most important things for me by not allowing them to break in the first place! I will freely admit it: I don’t want to become a quadriplegic so that I can then experience God’s healing. I’d much rather just not the injured.
But will I appreciate something that God gives me all the time? Most of the time… no. Ironically, God has to take something away and then fix it before I will appreciate it.
I guess I don’t give God much incentive to keep me out of trouble!
Most of the problems God allows to come my way are temporary, and though frustrating, I can imagine that they might have a good solution somewhere down the line. And even while I’m waiting for some of the problems to be resolved, I can go on living a normal life while I’m waiting or working on it.
Short-Lived Gratitude
Yesterday, I suddenly found the missing pieces to our dustbuster! Wahoo! They’d been missing for over a month. Somebody had taken it apart to clean it, and a few parts had gone missing. I had finally given up on finding them. The other parts had been left to dry on a counter near the trash, and I assumed the other parts must have fallen in and were long gone. And then suddenly – there they were! In a bin in another room. How did they get there? How had nobody seen them before? Who cares? I’m so happy to have my dustbuster back!
But the gratitude will be short-lived. I’ve moved on to other problems.
That’s me… always focusing on what needs to be fixed, not what is already working well.
This focusing on the problems – and especially what I can’t control right this minute – fuels and feeds my anxiety. I want to be in control! I want all of my problems fixed! I want it done now!
And that is exactly why I’m going to continue to have problems for the rest of my life.
Life Problems Solve Character Problems
Problems serve several functions:
Problems remind me that I am absolutely not God. I can’t control everything. I can’t do everything by myself. I need God. He can control things, and I can’t. He never allows me to be deluded about the extent of my power and control over life for very long. New problems correct my delusions quite well.
Problems remind me to pray.
Problems keep me humble.
Problems keep me challenged. I can’t just sit back and lazily watch life unfold. I have to be active, thinking, working, finding solutions, and moving forward by trial and error. Sometimes I have to think outside the box. I may have to try new things that I wouldn’t have bothered with otherwise.
Problems make me wiser. They teach me lessons that I would not have learned if I had not gone through difficult times.
Problems make me more compassionate. I can sympathize with other people who have problems because I’ve had problems myself. Maybe I can even give them some advice to help them get through their problems a little faster.
No Spoiled Brats, Please
Nobody likes a spoiled brat. We know what a spoiled brat is. When someone is arrogant, demanding, condescending, and generally acting entitled, we often refer to them as a spoiled brat. What are we really saying? That person hasn’t had enough problems in life. He hasn’t struggled enough. He’s had it too good. He doesn’t understand what the rest of us are feeling.
God doesn’t want us to be spoiled brats.
The Magical Fish Who Grants A Wish
Remember the story of the poor fisherman who caught a magical fish? The fish granted him a wish. So the fisherman asked his wife what he should wish for. The wife wanted a better house. Wish granted. Soon, she wasn’t satisfied with just a better house and wanted more. She wished again, for something even better. Wish granted. Still not satisfied. More wishes. More wishes granted. Until eventually, the magical fish got fed up and put everything back the way it had been in the first place.
Getting more and more – especially without struggling for it, without going through things to get it, without earning it – really doesn’t satisfy us the way we expect it will. It only makes us want more. More. More! MORE!!!!
Hardly the kind of results God is looking for when shaping our character.
Joy and satisfaction come through accomplishing something. Not through sitting back and getting lots of unnecessary stuff we didn’t earn or that didn’t cost us much.
Be Thankful!
You’ve got problems? Stop and be thankful for all the problems you don’t have, all the blessings you do have. Then look on the bright side. They’re good for you. They’re taking you somewhere better, making you into a better person.