Swift Streams Make Smooth Stones
There are few things more beautiful or relaxing than a creek flowing. I could spend all day sitting in a lawn chair with my feet in the water and listening to the water bubble over the rocks. Depending on the location those rocks may have been located in that stream for hundreds or thousands of years. Year after year, month after month, week after week, day after day, moment after moment those rocks have been subject to the swift flowing water. If you picked up that rock each day it is unlikely that you see any difference. But don't be fooled: It is changed. That rock has the texture it has because of that stream. The friction caused by the running water changes each of those stones into something a little smoother.
We are all like stones in a creek. Some of us find ourselves in the middle of the creek where the water is the roughest. Some of us are on the waters edge, occasionally getting impacted by the flowing water when the creek rises. Others are safely up on the bank, hardly touched by the flow. The truth is that all of us are impacted and molded by our surroundings in one way or another. While we are tempted to use our circumstances and the frustrating events of our lives as a cause for complaint and bitterness, we need to stop and think about what those moments have meant to us.
No one wishes for hardship in their life. No one wants to experience the death of a loved one. Nobody chooses to be raised in a broken home. Not a single person I know would desire to have cancer raid their family. People don't long for mental disorders, health problems, relationship issues, or job loss. Most of us just want to live out our existence here in peace and calm -- like our feet in the cold creek listening to the water trickle over rocks. But what made that peaceful scene? What made that cut in the earth? What caused those stones to become so smooth?
Friction.
Stress.
The violent force of nature applied to the rocks and soil.
The beauty of a creek bed and the smoothness of a stone can both be attributed to a negative force. Come to think of it, a creek bed is not alone in the analogy. Dirt must be broken before a garden can be planted. A fruit must wither, die, and dry up before the seed can be productive. The earth must be rained on to sustain life.
So what is the point? Simply this: we can groan about our circumstances and the negative forces around us or we can attempt to see them for the way they have helped us grow and produce in our daily lives. I'm not trying to diminish the pain. No one wants or wishes for negative things in their lives. I don't want that for you either. But living with a negative view of circumstances rarely produces anything positive. All I ask is that when negative things happen or when you reflect back on those things that have happened in the past, consider looking for how those things made you stronger, wiser, tougher, more thoughtful, more helpful, more perceptive...better. Most people we look up to as heroes and inspirations for our life are people who persevered through difficult times. Swift streams make smooth stones.
"Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing." - James 1:2-4
Ben