A fresh look at Trials

Tonight I wanted to share a new way to look at the trials we face here on earth. It's again from the book I'm reading Fresh Brewed Life. I found it very thought-provoking.

In the book she says that the darker the roast of coffee, the more intense the flavour and that for a rich, strong life, we are going to have to go through the fire. "This roasting can deepen our walk. The finer the grind of the beans, the more concentrated the coffee"(p. 10). She goes on to explain that when we face trials, we should submit to them because suffering makes us real. This is easy to say, but tough to do. No one likes to go through hard times; experiencing loss, suffering with health issues etc. But we can have comfort knowing the God is using the experience to shape us and to help us to grow, and that He never leaves us along through it. That's pretty comforting.

I'll admit, I've had a fairly 'easy life'. I haven't experienced losing a parent, losing a child, or going through any really tough health issues (although Izzy's pneumonia a couple of years ago terrified me). I've always thought that going through a brutal time of loss has either got to pull people towards God, or push them further away. I like what she says in the book, that we can allow the hard things we go through to make us better rather than bitter. I know that when I lost a very important relationship to me over ten years ago, the experience thrust me right into the arms of God. I'd never felt His presence more closely when I did through that trial. It's pretty sad that when life is going well, we tend to forget about Him and think we can make it through our lives on our own. Sometimes it takes a tragedy, or a trial to get us to turn our eyes to what really matters in this life. That's really unfortunate isn't it?

Melanie