It is often very difficult to understand the purpose of what we have to do, of the reason of suffering. We don’t get all the details of our journey on our Road of Faith.
Why does my daughter have to suffer through her lupus? Why did my dad have to die? So many things that we are told are important if not critical pieces of our faith journey. But to what purpose? I can see many better ways or paths that would be more efficient. Aren’t they?
As I sit here in the dark this morning thinking of this thought, the Lord puts the movie, “Karate Kid”, in my mind. Strange comparison but not so much when you think of it.
Mr. Miyagi had Daniel painting fences – up/down – painting his house – left/right – and who can forget, “sand the floor”. Daniel just wanted to learn karate so he wouldn’t get bullied any longer. He was so frustrated to not be receiving lessons that he was ready to quit.
Mr. Miyagi then stopped Daniel and told him, “do paint the fence.” He the preceded to throw punches which Daniel blocked with the muscle memory from painting the fence.
We may not understand what ‘exercises’ we must go through to lift our souls to God. But, we must trust God. If we received tasks that look silly, unrelated or too difficult, we need to press forward and endure. The end game of all God gives us in our life is to be with Him forever in Heaven.
Don’t try to decipher or try to figure out the purpose of what God is ‘making us do.’ He is not giving you busy work or things to do just because He doesn’t want to do them. Everything has a reason.
Do you trust that the events of your life, especially the bad, are controlled by God for the purpose of making you a saint? Trust that God is strengthening your muscles, building your skills and habits and giving your endurance to “fight the good fight.” 1 Timothy 6:12