Tests of a different kind . . .

August 31, 2008

Today could hardly be called a day of suffering. We are on Vancouver Island in a Bed & Breakfast where the owner could be a chef in any fancy restaurant in the world. Fabulous food. Our room is about 14 x 18 with comfortable furniture and pleasing decor. Luxurious yet not expensive. This home is on the beach where we can look across the bay to a range of mountains on the other side. Their large sunroom has a telescope. Eagles and water birds fly over head. The sun is shining in a deep blue sky. In about an hour we will attend a church, a solid one that we have been to before and have friends. Life could not be much better.

But suffering happens. My devotional verse for today says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us”(Romans 8:18).

God uses tough times to shape His people into the image of Christ. That suffering has no comparison with the good that comes out of it. God is wise; He knows exactly what I need to bring His glory into my life. He has taught me that trouble is not my enemy. While I don’t like it, He can and does use it for my good.

So what about the opposite? Do the almost perfect conditions of today also fit into His plans? Verse 28 of Romans 8 says yes. Good things are also part of the “all things” that He can “work together for good” in my life, the good being that constant work of transforming me into the likeness of His Son.

I’ve a responsibility here. I could permit this idyllic vacation to indulge my old nature. I could resent any interruptions to the ease, like clouds in the sky, or rain, or something like my husband driving by a place where I really wanted to stop. Grouchy can come easy when Eden is invaded.

I’m noticing though that even on holidays the Holy Spirit is still nudging me, still making me aware of temptation and His conviction. He says, Don’t go there, or Confess that right now, and as I do, the sense of ‘almost heaven’ returns and I am deeply aware of Him and His power.

My experience with God is that He does use the tough times to produce a different attitude, but this vacation shows me that He also uses the best of times to test those changes and ensure that what He has taught me is still here, in place, and not at all shaken by all this pampering.