Muscles have to be torn in order to be strengthened. Gold must go through testing by fire in order to be refined. Roses must be pruned in order to bloom.
Romans 5:3-5 says that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us.
We always want the end result, and I wish the process was easy, but the truth is, it’s brutal. Growth hurts, and growth takes time, there is no getting around it. It is in the process that our true character and faith is tested. After all, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, it is “not in his goals, but in his transitions man is great.”
To be honest, El Salvador was a difficult month for me, but it was also a time of growth. It is not easy to realize how selfish I am, how weak my flesh is, how much I still do not rely on God, how easily I give up on things. Yet God continues to show that He has a plan and purpose in my being here and how much He loves me despite my imperfections.
I am stepping into new territories of leadership, of being bold in sharing God’s love with others, doing ministries that would not normally come easy to me. I am not the same person I was at training camp in October or when I stepped onto the mission field in January. It has come at a cost and has been painful at times. But I know that every step, no matter how seemingly tedious or difficult, is worth it.
As one of my squad mates said, the World Race is not about changing who you are, it’s about becoming more of who God made you to be.
