Scripture: Romans 8:28
Journal: How is God using your struggles right now as a part of your becoming?
Reflection:
There is an old story about a man who spent
hours watching as a butterfly struggled to emerge from its cocoon. It finally managed, after significant time
and effort, to make a small hole, but its body was still far too big to get
through it. After much wrestling and
toil, the butterfly appeared to be totally exhausted, as it laid there lifeless
and still.
The man had seen enough, he
finally decided he just had to help. He
took a pair of scissors and cut and opening in the cocoon to allow the
butterfly to be released from its struggle.
But no sooner had the butterfly emerged, than the man noticed its body
was shrunken and its wings puny and shriveled.
It was incapable of flight.
What the man—out of kindness
and good intent—had assumed was that the butterfly needed to be rescued, when
it actually needed to be left to struggle.
It was the struggle to emerge from the tight cocoon and the effort
necessary to squeeze out of that small hole that were supposed to make the
butterfly’s wings strong enough for flight.
And so it is with each of
us. Our transformation cannot happen
without struggle and pain and turmoil, although we try to avoid each. In fact, it is the struggle and the toil and
the wrestling that makes our souls into all that God desires them to be. If we try to bypass the hard and the
uncomfortable and the unpleasant, we will never be ready for the flight and the
life that God has prepared for each of us.
It is both good and necessary. It
is vital to our process of becoming.
Prayer
Closing
Prayer: O Lord, help us to trust you in all things,
even when the road is hard and the way seems long. Thank you that you are always working for our
good, even in things—and in times—that don’t look so good. Thank you that you are bigger than our moods,
our feelings, and our circumstances.
Amen.
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