In grade school and college, many students count down the days to their summer break or Christmas vacation. They place countdowns in their phones and do everything they can to keep their eyes on the prize. In the meantime, they study and work hard to keep their grades up so that they can pass their classes, and some students even create amazing relationships with their teachers. These relationships help them to learn and grow from someone who has learned and experienced more than they have.
At the end of the term, they can finally leave their school and say that they made it! What an incredible feeling it is to know that you have taken on something so challenging and surpassed it with flying colors! Not only this, but now you have learned so many new things to take with you into your next step of life.
If we open up our minds, isn’t the Christian life kind of the same way?
Take stock for a moment, and think about a recent difficulty in your life that you have overcome. During that difficulty, how many times did you say, “I just can’t wait until this is all over.”? How frequently did you just wish that you could move on from that part of your life and stop worrying?
I can say from recent experience that I tend to say it a lot in the midst of struggle. I mean, after all, who wants to go through difficult times? Wouldn’t it just be easier if God could tell us the lesson, and then give us what we want so we don’t have to be stressed and worried? I think it would be, but then I remember something.
Much like school, God can give us all of the wisdom that we could ever ask for and that doesn’t mean that we learn it or grasp it.
Much like a student, we take notes, listen, and learn lessons, but we still need a test to see if we can apply it.
And much like a teacher, God gives us instruction, but is there to have a relationship with so that we can have a deeper understanding and knowledge from the master.
The difference, however, between God and a teacher, is that after you go home and you cry and struggle with whatever lesson you are learning, God is still there with you to comfort you and love you. He is not only a teacher, but a friend.
The next time you struggle and wish that it could just be over, remember that it is a lesson, and you have the master there to comfort you and guide you. At the end of it all, you will receive the prize.
A Positive Life 