Called To Do Hard

 Hard things. Life is made up of them. Many of them, in fact. We know this to be a part of our human existence and yet, somehow we run. We hide. And we think we can avoid them. Grow without them. It's taken me years to accept this, but I'm starting to realize there is no other way. Hard things are my path - your path - to what really matters. Honestly, they are the Savior's path to the most important lessons we can ever learn. 

 I spent the past couple of days thinking about this...tracing this path of hardship through the Bible and finding a pattern for why suffering matters. Why the opening of the heart through trouble is a necessary part of life's journey. And I found a thread running through it all - hard things proceed great outcomes. God often takes people through big tests of will, faith, and nerve prior to doing something huge in and through their life. 

 Take Abraham for example...among the many hard things God asked him to do in the course of His life, the hardest by far was to sacrifice his only son. If you read the story in Genesis 22, you find a man who is pushed to the absolute limit of his trust in God: to kill his young son, through which so much blessing had been promised, as an offering to God at God's request. And yet, you see Abraham's faith in that He never asked God "why?" I'm sure he probably wondered initially if he'd heard God right when God asked him to do such a thing, but He still said "yes" to God's will...even if he didn't understand. Obviously, God provided a different answer when He saw Abraham's willingness to obey, but that hard thing was the testing point by which God determined his faithfulness: "...for now I know that you fear God...(Gen. 22:12)." 

 As you continue through the Bible, we notice Joseph - how he had to be sold into slavery so that he could be down in Egypt when the famine hit Israel and could one day save his family from it. He had to go through hard things before He could receive God's blessing for himself and His family (Gen. 37-50). 

 We see Gideon when God asked him to go and fight the invading Midianites - how God told him to choose his army carefully and that He asked all the soldier wannabes to do a hard thing before they could be accepted into the elite fighting force. That Gideon would know who he was to choose by the way in which they drank water. God whittled down his fighting force from 32,000 to 300. And God did a mighty victory because 300 men were willing to do the hard thing (Judges 7). 

 We see God allowing Job to lose everything - family, possessions, health - so that God might see his devotion to the Lord. 

 On and on the stories go...until we arrive at the ultimate example: God the Father asking His Son Jesus Christ to go to the cross on behalf of sinful mankind in order that He might provide a way of redemption. Jesus didn't want to be crucified - He didn't go singing to the cross and happily accept His destiny. Rather, He pleaded with His heavenly Father to take away the cup being given to Him. But...as with all of these examples beforehand...He went willingly. He offered Himself to the Father's will and said "yes." 

 All of these examples make it clear to us that we are called to do hard things. We cannot avoid them and still become who we're meant to be. There is no other way. God lays this out as the path of true transformation. Of learning to submit to the will of God no matter what. Sometimes we fight the hard things God is putting in front of us - we look for a way out...a way of escape...when what God's really after is the yielding of our hearts. 

 His ways are hard to trace sometimes. There are moments when it seems as though He's completely lost it and has no care for us. But...do we step out after Him in faith anyway? God won't always show you the "whys" of your life. But He will show you the "Who" in your life - is it yourself? Your own way? Or is it God and His way? Selfish ambition rarely is exposed more clearly than when our backs are up agains the wall and we don't see a way around the hard things in front of us. At that point, we are faced with a choice as to who we will believe - our own judgement or God. 

 I don't know what hard thing you might be facing - it could be that you're stuck in a job that you hate and there's no change in sight; maybe its a crushed dream that you thought was within reach and now lies dashed on the floor of reality; perhaps its learning to get along with a boss that you dislike, or dealing with the disappointment of being passed over for a promotion and being forced to work in a lower level than you wanted. Maybe its getting up the courage to have a tough conversation with somebody about a personal matter that should've been addressed a long time ago. It could be an injury or medical issue that has sidelined you from your normal job/activity level, and you face a long recovery. It could even be a terminal diagnosis...

 Whatever your "hard thing" is - know this: that "our light and temporary affliction is producing for us an eternal glory that far outweighs our troubles (2 Cor. 4:17)." The whole purpose of God's allowing hard things to happen to us is to refine, transform, and redeem us for something greater than the disappointment, the sadness, the frustration we now feel. What we lose now is nothing compared to what we will gain later...and God knows we cannot acquire what He wants us to learn any other way. We must walk through these things. But, our assurance lies in that He has promised we will never walk through them alone. That He is always with us and that He Himself knows the reward of walking through the hard. When you're to the end of your rope and you thing you can't face another setback, another challenge, another disappointment...remember that others have trod this path too...including your Savior. Keep choosing brave and stepping out in faith...even when you don't see the outcome.