turning Problems into Praise

When we started this school year at the seminary, the focus for the year was "Spiritual Growth."

"What a joke!" I thought today following a positively horrific day. The last two days alone have been marred by so many negative things. By this afternoon, Matt and I both found ourselves in tears, utterly exhausted by the past 2 weeks and all of the problems we have faced. As I prayed during our Tuesday OMS meeting, the Lord reminded me of our "theme" for the year, and I felt let down and irritated: today's events felt nothing short of spiritual plummeting...spiritual sky-diving.

The moment I smirked, however, that still small voice rebuked my doubt.

"When you pray for patience," God told my thoughts, "Do I give you patience, or do I give you opportunities to learn patience? When you pray for love, do I hand you more love, or give you the chance to practice more love? When you pray for healing, do I heal you overnight, or do I give you opportunities for healing in your life?"

YES, Lord. I thought, humbled. When we have prayed for spiritual growth at our school, God wasn't going to dish out growth left and right or pass it out to each student and staff member after chapel one day. Instead, He is giving us a great many opportunities to grow spiritually. It is difficult to grow spiritually whenever everything is "hunky-dory", my mom used to say.
You grow whenever you are faced with issues too complicated for you to handle, too difficult for you to fix, too disappointing for you to persevere.

And we HAVE grown spiritually this past 6 months. We've grown more than we ever thought possible, and PRAISE THE LORD, it is because we have truly had so many intense issues at the seminary. These past two days, these heavy issues weighing down our plates and hearts have simply offered us more opportunities to look to Him and to let Him carry us, let Him stretch us.

Not only us, but these issues have been so widespread, that they have been offering EVERY student and EVERY staff member opportunities for growth.

Despite our emotional and physical fatigue this evening, He has planted a small seed of praise in our hearts...
Praise that He knows best,
Praise that He's in charge,
and Praise that He always has our VERY best in mind.

"Do you believe that I am able to do this?" Jesus asked the blind men in Matthew 9:28.

Yes Lord, we believe!