Have you ever scratched your head in the midst of a difficult season of life or moment and just wondered, “Is this really happening?” I have. Many times. I’ll never forget one time when I was in high school–my sophomore year. The glory days, right? Not really for me. I had just moved in from Tomball, TX to Midland, TX a couple years prior, and not only did I enter into another world–from the high school football perspective–but another dimension. These guys were serious about football–really, serious about winning. I was playing both offense and defense at the time, and was really spending more time on the offensive side. The problem for me was more than the fact that everyone had caught up to me and even surpassed me on speed and strength, but also that I couldn’t keep from fumbling the ball. You see, I had played organized football since I was in the third grade, and I was always the running back. But not now, it seemed that everything was changing. I was in a new school who lived and died by the results of Friday nights in autumn, and I couldn’t compete against my peers.
I’ll never forget the last time I fumbled that spring training day of my sophomore year, the coach benched me–pretty much told me I was worthless–and then didn’t put me back in. I still remember that day, bent down on one knee (as is the normal resting football stance) leaning on my helmet with one hand, looking down at the ground, and trying to decide right then and there if I was going to quit the game I loved so much. I couldn’t understand why this was happening. It seems a little trivial now looking back, but at the time it was everything for that high school sophomore.
Well, it turns out that the coaches decided to try me at middle linebacker my junior year, and the rest was history from there. I didn’t have to worry about holding the ball anymore–no, I could now focus on trying to make the other guy fumble! And, as it turns out, our team made it all the way to the state finals with a win to finish my senior year. The Lord was good to us, and whether or not we went to state and won, I knew that the trial He let me endure during that impressionable sophomore season was enough to carry me through many more difficult days. And let me tell you what, it most certainly has. Glory to God!
James 1:2-4, says:
“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
WOW, what a beautiful promise to the Christian: the outcome of our trials–as we endure them–is a movement toward us becoming perfect (mature) and complete, lacking in nothing.
So, can trials be useful?
Yes, more than useful, good!
See also Romans 8:28-29:
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren…”
Are you facing trials right now? Be encouraged my brother or sister, joyfully endure with the knowledge that God is and will use this trial to produce in you a maturity that otherwise would not exist.
Press on.
— November 6, 2015