Coming Soon

I saw the above sign hanging in a shop in Thailand. I wanted to write in marker beneath the sign, "Promise?"

Admittedly, I have often wished for a hurdle-free existence.

The words, "Why must this be so hard?" are not foreign to my lips.

When I look over the landscape that is my life, I acknowledge that the road has not been easy. At many times in my (relatively young) life, I have experienced hard struggles: health, emotional, spiritual.

(Disclaimer: I do not own the trademark on difficulty. I know many people whose lives have been much more complicated than my own.)

But here is what my life has taught me thus far: Without the difficulties, I would not know grace. Without the trials, I would not understand mercy. Without the temptations, I would not experience deliverance.

It is a difficult thing to verbalize--indeed it goes to the core of our most painful situations--but trials are God's goodness in our lives. Without them, we wouldn't know how much we need God.

And to live a God-free life would be the worst existence of all.

Life is hard. But God is good. And if difficulty is the price I must pay to know God and love Him more, then bring on the hurdles.