I was heading to work recently when I ran into backed-up traffic and realized I was going to be late. So, I started looking for shortcuts. I turned down a side street, thinking I could go around the traffic and save some time. My little detour, however, led to another side street and then another turn, until finally I was heading in the wrong direction. It cost me more time than if I had simply endured the traffic and stayed on the main road.
Life is like that. We encounter a hardship, difficulty, inconvenience, or struggle, and we start looking for shortcuts. What we hope will lead us around the hardship often takes us off the very path God wants to use to help us grow.
During a Zoom call last week, someone told me, “God often grows us more when we get a ‘no’ than when we get a ‘yes.’” But we sure like those “yeses” more than those “noes,” don’t we?
The Lord’s work of shaping our lives is a slow process of spiritual formation that includes the trials and struggles we try to avoid. If we desire growth, we can’t bypass the road that leads us there.
Theologians Kyle Strobel and John Coe wrote:
Our call is not to make our lives what we want but to remain with the Lord wherever he leads, learning to grow in faith as we abide in him. Through every season of the soul we must ask, What does it mean to remain with Jesus here? How do we abide in him through the desert when our hearts wander and we are bored and tired? What does it mean to abide in him in desolation when we are confronted with the depths of our sin and brokenness? (When God Seems Distant, 56)
Spiritual growth happens as we remain with Jesus through the hard times. This doesn’t mean our goal is to grit our teeth and toughen up. Our goal is intimacy with Jesus, and His invitation is to remain with Him wherever He leads.
When I try to find a shortcut around my pain, I may eventually arrive at my preferred destination, but I am not the preferred person Jesus is calling me to be. Being with Jesus is far more important than how quickly I get where I think I need to go.
My challenge to you is to be present in the moment, practice the presence of God, and find joy in the journey. As you do, keep your focus on abiding with Jesus—wherever He leads.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace
In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
—John 16:33, NIV
