Learn The Lesson

Lately I've been pondering the fact that so many of the people I know -- family and friends -- are going through terrific struggles/challenges. Some are health challenges, some are emotional difficulties, some are financial adversities. But they are all very real and very painful.

It is possible to affirm that God is present with them in the struggles. It is possible in faith to know that "everything works together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purposes." (Romans 8:28) I can posit these things, but somehow that doesn't answer all the questions that come up in the actual going-through-the-struggle episodes.

I have come to the conclusion that there is another dimension to this whole reality. I have come to believe that God uses these struggles to teach us some lesson(s). That is not to say that God causes these illnesses or adversities. Only that God uses them to show us new realities, new dimensions in our lives.

It might be that I need to recognize that I am not in control of my life. Even though I proclaim my dependence on God, sometimes I live as though I am in charge. Therefore, from time to time I need to be reminded Who is really in the driver's seat.

Maybe what I need to learn is how to ask for help from others. In my idea of myself, sometimes I see me as self-sufficient, able to get along without the support and assistance of others. Here my pride comes into the picture. It is rather humbling to have to ask someone else to do for me what (I think) I should be able to do for myself.

Perhaps God is trying to change my priorities. Maybe the lesson plan for me is to reveal my mixed up hierarchy of important things. What I see as number one may not be so for God. God could be telling me to slow down, take more time for prayer because all the running around that I am doing is all being done to avoid facing God in my life.

One thing I have learned: God wants me for relationship with the Godhead. Everything else is secondary to that. My health, my finances, my home, my job, my whatever is dispensable if it comes between me and God.

Whatever the lesson(s) God wants to teach me, the sooner I learn them, the sooner my life can move on. That doesn't mean that my life will get back to what it was before because, as my friend Gail says, once we have come face to face with God, nothing is ever the same. But if I am slow, or refuse to learn the lesson, then the Teacher finds it necessary to prolong the class. So my mantra is to learn as quickly as possible.

What lesson is God teaching you at this point in your life?