Life is a Beautiful Struggle

Driving to work this morning I started thinking again about this idea of our struggles and trials being beautiful. It's an interesting dichotomy that I have pondered a lot over the last six years, and I still don't fully understand its spiritual implications, but I'm trying.

I guess it all goes back to the law of opposition.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had everything they could possibly need at their fingertips, no effort necessary. They had zero trials. Doesn't that sound wonderful!? No struggle, no heartache or pain or suffering.

But because of this, they also couldn't understand all that they did have. They couldn't appreciate it; they couldn't savor it.  They couldn't feel its goodness; they couldn't experience true happiness and joy because they knew no different.

When Eve realized this, that they were missing what life was meant to be about, she made the decision to truly live. She decided to leave all the comforts she had in the garden--all that was provided to her freely-- to seek out the struggle that would make her life beautiful. Opposition.

Today, movies, tv shows, books....all of those things we can connect with and enjoy....they're about people who struggle, who have trials. They are never about someone who had everything they wanted or needed and nothing ever...happened to them. Why? Because we crave the struggle, the opposition.

Don't we?

Otherwise why would we seek out stories that completely surround the struggles of other humans...like us.  Remember the Disney movie 'Up'?  Where we see Carl and Ellie's story unfold in only 4 minutes and it's the most heart-wrenching, but oh-so-beautiful story you've seen in years?

So why do we resist our own?

Why do we resist the thing that makes our life worth having? We did not come here--to this earth, to this life--to have everything work out the first time, to have everything we ask for when we ask for it. No, ma'am.

I came here to learn. I came here to grow and expand my heart. I came here to learn how to be Christ-like. I came here to prove that I would choose Him every. time.   I came here to prove that I want Him and His truth more than anything this world could possibly offer --not even-- immediacy, comfort or ease.

I know how hard it can be to keep this perspective. We live in a fallen, broken world that tells us to demand immediacy, comfort and ease, and to deny God when we aren't blessed with it. This, on top of the fact that our trials can last a loooong time and it's not easy to remember that this life is really short compared to eternity. We can become overwhelmed so easily.

Looking at my own life and my own struggles, I've had a few key moments when I've truly seen my life like He must see it: a beautiful struggle.   A struggle that is shaping and molding me into the person He knows I can become. I look at the last six years and at those moments I'm able to see the beauty in our waiting. The beauty in our heartache.

That day I miscarried our first little baby that we had prayed & waited so long to bring to life....that day that our first slipped away from us, and Bryce & I cried together with a brokenness that I can't adequately describe ....I can tell you that it is a sacred beautiful part of my life that I would never change.

As much as I want my baby, I want what He wants even more. Because what He wants for me is what will make my life worth living.

So that's where that Intentionality comes in. We have to put our efforts on the table every single day because the world certainly puts forth its power against us every day.

So let's be Intentional about our faith. Let's be intentional about our happiness. Let's be intentional about appreciating the beauty in our struggles.