When was the last time you chose to do something you knew would challenge you, for no other reason than making yourself into a better person?
On Thursday this week I had one of my most challenging, yet most rewarding, days of ministry so far. It was Day of the Dead here in Guatemala, which is the second biggest national holiday in the country only behind Christmas. It’s like they have Halloween and Thanksgiving wrapped up into one holiday. Guatemalans celebrate by getting together as a family, having a feast, and honoring their dead. They honor the dead by flying kites as a symbolic way to say hello to them, and by visiting the graves of the family.
Even though it was the holiday, our squad still had ministry, but the traffic and celebrations of the day put limitations on what we could do for ministry. We ended up asking the Lord to tell us individually what we should do or where we should go for ministry. After we got our answer, we all came back together and divided ourselves up in groups based on where we felt called to go. The group that I was with went to the hospital. The heart behind visiting the hospital was to be able to show love to the people that couldn’t go out to celebrate the holiday because they were hospitalized or they had family that was hospitalized.
When we got to the hospital we found out that we couldn’t go inside because it was not visiting hours, so we decided to just speak to the families that were in the waiting area. We announced to the whole area that we were missionaries and that we wanted to show them the love of Jesus by hearing their stories, praying for them, and sharing their burdens with them. Each family we talked to was emotional. It was extremely difficult hearing what these families were going through knowing that it was our job to look them in the eye and try to provide them with hope and life. There was a moment where I definitely felt unable to complete that job, but that moment passed and God gave me comfort. I realized that God’s truth is inherently good and life-giving, and the best thing about that truth is that it is true all the time. The truth is still the truth even when it feels harder to know it.
Overall, the day of ministry was really trying, but it was also one of the most growing. It is important to be able to do the hard things. It made me realize the importance of choosing to do hard things. Starting the race, I assumed that choosing to go on the race was a hard enough decision to last me the nine months. It’s true that it was a hard decision, but it was still only one decision. Being on the race for almost two months now has revealed to me that you have to continue to choose between the hard and the easy decisions no matter what life you live. I love the race and I know that is has grown me so much, but I also know that being on the race is still just life.
Last week I read the book “The Artisan Soul” by Erwin Raphael McManus. The premise of the book is that every human is inherently creative because we are all made in the image of God, the ultimate creator. That idea seems kind of hokey on the face of it, but I personally loved that McManus developed the idea further. He makes it clear that in order to successfully be creative you must also be disciplined and willing to accept the challenges that come with living a creative life. He says, “We hope that discovering our talents, and even our calling or purpose, will lead to effortless success. I would propose that the exact opposite is true: if God created us to be successful at something, then he has called us to work hard at it.”
What I realize from all this is that God asks us to do challenging things. We grow when we are challenged, but all too often we choose the least challenging path ahead of us. God’s plan for us is good. God’s plan for us is also difficult and strenuous and maybe even painful. Those last two sentences are not mutually exclusive.
I’m not saying that challenges or pain come from the Lord (because we know that only good things come from God James 1:13-17), but I am saying that God wants to be the one to hold your hand when the hard things come and He wants to be the one that leads you out of the struggles and into the glory that He has for you. Choosing to follow God means that you will have to choose to do hard things, but the good news is that no matter how hard it gets God’s love and his truth will always be the same. The truth about God is that He loves you the same amount when you are struggling as when you are thriving, it’s our emotions that change.
Ministry on Thursday was one of the best days of ministry so far, but it was also one of the hardest. God loves us so much that he calls us into trials because he knows it will be all the better for us. God loves us just the way we are, but he loves us too much to leave us the way we are. So choose to do the hard things that he has planned for you because it is worth it.
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2-4
