It's hard for me to imagine absolute perfection. My life is very good these days, so good it almost feels wrong. What am I to do when everything seems just too perfect? Looking back over my old posts, I get the feeling that I wrote better when life was tough. Now, there just seems so little to write about, which for me as a writer means that something must be lacking. It's conflict, of course: I'm around a bunch of people that I like, doing things I like, in a place I like, and I'm as happy as I've ever been -- no conflict. But something in me doesn't want a smooth and happy life all the time. I'm so used to struggling, it feels normal and even good somehow, and I know it is, because struggles strengthen. So when things seem too good, I get a little uneasy, because I know that a flat calm with no wind for the sails can kill a sailor as surely as a hurricane if it goes on long enough. When life is easy, complacency can set in and stop forward motion.
But it doesn't have to. I am truly thankful in my happy circumstances, and I know I am being changed and shaped as God desires even in the good times. Though He often does, He is not bound to working through hard times. Furthermore, I do not have to struggle any more than I have to sin. I have been given the victory! (1 Corinthians 15:57) I suppose it is my pride that wants a problem to focus on, a trial to conquer, just so I can feel myself working. But it is a mark of maturity to come to the place where I can love God without being forced to run to Him because I'm in trouble. His aim for me is perfection -- joy and confidence in Him that are not dependent on difficulties for contrast. Because one day, life really will be completely perfect. A world without battles is so foreign, it's hard to grasp, but I must learn that the glory is not in the fight, it is in the celebration of victory. And that victory is already won. Why should I not be happy?
No comments:
Post a Comment