In the past few months I’ve been learning a lot about walking through the process. The process of pain and brokenness, the process of healing, and the process of building a relationship with our creator.
In Ethiopia we had house church one Sunday and listened to a podcast about the trusting the process. The pastor was talking about how if we try to skip or ignore the process, then we will miss the promise that God has in store for us. That’s good stuff.
While listening, the Lord told me that the process is his promise.
Some of us are goal oriented and some of us aren’t. I am extremely goal oriented and sometimes it’s super hard for me to enjoy the process and see the beauty in it when my mind is set on a goal. It’s like going to the grocery store, some of us go in, have a planned out path where everything is, you get exactly what you need and you get out in record time. The alternative to that is you go in with a few things in mind, but you take your time and enjoy looking at all the options available. When you leave it definitely wasn’t the fastest trip, but you enjoyed it and probably ended up with some extra sweets too. The thing is I’m like the first person way too often.
There’s been many times on the race, as the whole race is a process, that I’ve missed out on the beauty and wonder that God had in store for me because I was too focused on the goal. When I ran a half marathon through Angkor Wat (one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world). I had two goals for the race, to not stop running and finish in my goal time. I achieved both of my goals but what I realized that even though achieved my goals I missed out on a lot of other things. I found out after the race that somewhere on the path there were some wild elephants hanging around one of the temples. Elephants! I couldn’t believe I was so focused on my goal that I didn’t stop to see something as crazy as this. Yes, I reached my goal but I never stopped even for a second to enjoy the beauty that surrounded me.
Learning to trust the process is hard, especially when the process is painful. There’s been so many times that I’ve felt pain and wished I didn’t. What I’ve learned is that without feeling that deep pain, I would’ve never felt the great joy that the pain was leading to. The thing is that pain is the process and we have to trust god enough that he will never take us through hurt if he didn’t have a purpose for it in our lives.
If you’re too busy focusing on the goal you will never see the beauty in the journey that you’re in. It’s something that I have to work for everyday, to not try to get to the next thing but enjoy life where I’m at, even if it’s painful and not fun at all. God’s promise to us is the process, the process of pain and the process of learning.
Without the process we would never be able to see what God has in store for us, a glorious life in eternity with Him.
