Why is this difficult?

A story is told of a famous actress from the early 1940ʼs. Her name was Billie Burke who famously played Glinda, the Good Witch in the Wizard of Oz, and apparently she was quite impressed with herself. Once, when she was on a transatlantic ocean trip, she noticed a man getting some sun on the deck who seemed to be suffering from a very bad head cold. “Are you uncomfortable?” she asked him. The man nodded his head. “Iʼll tell you just what to do,” she said. “Go to your room and drink lots of orange juice. Take two aspirins. Cover yourself with all the blankets you can find. Sweat the cold out. I know just Iʼm talking about. Iʼm Billie Burke from Hollywood.” “Thank you,” the man said. “Iʼm glad to meet you. Iʼm Dr. Mayo from Mayo Clinic.”

I’m not sure if that story is true, but it reminds me that we often think we understand more than we actually do.

For instance, when we are going through something difficult we tend to believe that we have somehow taken a wrong turn. We want to get out of the situation as quickly as possible, whether through prayer for miraculous intervention or through our own action.

But there is another option: We may be experiencing something because God is using it to work in us. Romans 5:3 says we can actually “rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; & character, hope.” James echos this when he writes, “consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:3)

Pure joy! I can think of many things that bring me pure joy, but trails of many kinds sure don’t make it on the list.

Perseverance is the one word that both of those verses share in common. Whether God is calling us to persevere in prayer (like in Jesus’ story of the Widow in Luke 18) or to tenaciously walk in patient endurance—not swayed from God’s deliberate purpose in our lives—often that is the only way for our maturity to be truly shaped.

So next time you encounter a crisis that you want to just escape, or come against some opposition you wish wasn’t there, or face a required task you would rather not be doing, or even get tired of your particular assignment, don’t just bail. Stand up, face it head on, and persevere through it.

You may just find that what you don’t want is exactly what God is using to grow you closer to Him and more effective in the Kingdom.