This too shall pass

"My God, I have never thanked you for my thorn. I have thanked you for my roses, but not once for my thorn... Those miserable, prickly thorns! What eternal weights of glory they may be." 
                                                                                                                                 -George Matteson

Life is a rollercoaster. There are times when everything seems to be moving in slow motion and on a flat surface. And then all of a sudden, you take a turn and you are dropping at 100 miles per hour. And then you have to make your way out of the hole at snail pace, trying to reach the top while all the time hoping that you can find another plateau where you can actually breathe.

Whenever I'm going through a difficult time in my life, my friends tell me over and over: "This too shall pass." And if they don't tell me, then I keep saying it to myself. Recently, my friend Lupe told me that she was praying for Alex and she mentioned the famous phrase: "This too shall pass." But she added what she likes to call her philosophical rampage:

"Life is not the fairy tale that we grew up believing. It consists of a myriad of experiences, ranging from heart wrenching to ecstasy, each experience allowing us the opportunity to either grow or to wither. With God's grace, we move from one to the other, firmer in faith and trusting in His will."

I told Lupe that her philosophical rampage had been inspired by God and that I was going to use it in my next meditation. She hit it right on the nail. "Life is not a fairy tale." We move from happy and joyous events to sad and somber experiences. But the important thing is what we learn from each experience. As Lupe so wisely stated, we can "grow or wither."

My least favorite book in the Bible is the Book of Job. I don't know too many people that like this book for obvious reasons. Nobody likes to suffer. Job's struggles are overwhelming. I don't want to walk in his shoes. Ever. But unfortunately, to some degree, we all have to walk in Job's shoes at various points in our lives. And here's where the Book of Job can be very helpful. We can learn a lot from Job. Job's biggest distress comes from thinking that God did not care. He asked God for an explanation. When God speaks to Job, He doesn't explain and He doesn't apologize. We are not going to receive an explanation from God or an apology either. But from the book of Job we can learn that even in the calamities of our life, God has a purpose. He may seem silent but He is not absent. Even when we feel that He is not answering our prayers, we can trust that God has a bigger plan for us just like He had a bigger plan for Job. Silence is just part of His strategy. 

God hears us. He hears our prayers, our petitions, our weeping... But God wants us to grow, He doesn't want us to wither. Afflictions truly shows us our strengths. It reveals what we are made of. And tribulations, if we offer them up to God, can become the tools that God uses for our spiritual growth.

So next time that you find yourself in the rollercoaster, falling at 100 miles per hour, remember that this too shall pass.