Perspective

Going through suffering can make us incredibly self-focused. We are in pain and getting out of that pain becomes our primary concern. It's easy to become angry, bitter, obsessed with the hard thing you are going through. Gosh, I realize I'm even writing this like it's something I've graduated from, but give me a bad headache, a long day, a painful ovarian cyst... I'm right back in it.

I love the perspective in 1 Peter 4:1-2, and in particular I love the way that The Message paraphrases this verse: "Since Jesus went through everything you’re going through and more, learn to think like him. Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you’ll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want."

Wow. My sufferings wean me from always expecting to get my own way.

I see that to be true as over time God humbles me more and more and I realize that I am the creature not the Creator, and my life is about him and his will, not me and my will. I want to be free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what I want (another child, a healthy husband, relative ease, more rest, a path to holiness that is not the refiner's fire, no burdens, to be thinner without having to discipline my self...). Lord, make me free to pursue what you want, instead of being tyrannized by my own desires.

xoxo