Suffering Makes Us Glow
A mom told me a story about a time she was standing in a long checkout line with her two boys. One was a toddler, and the other was a big kid. The big kid had a pack of glow sticks, and the toddler was screaming for one. The mother was exasperated. She grabbed the bag of glow sticks, opened it up, and gave one to the toddler.
Instantly he stopped crying. He stood there with the glow stick, smiling. Just tickled. Then his big brother took the glow stick from him, and he started crying again. Just as the mom was about to lay into the big brother, he bent the glow stick so it started glowing.
Then he handed it back to his little brother, who was now amazed with it. The big brother told him, “I had to break it so it would glow.”
Sometimes God has to break us, so we can glow. That’s why he allows us to suffer. That toddler would have been content to play with his unbroken glow stick, because he had no idea how beautiful it could be. Similarly, we are content with the way things are. We don’t know why God has to break us. But God knows how beautiful we can be when we glow.
Garage Sale Redemption
My son and daughter-in-law love to go to garage and estate sales. Most of the things they find would be classified as junk. The things they find in these sales are already on their way to the trash heap, but the owners set them out for others to sort through in hopes of making a little money from all that trash before it's taken away.
When my son stumbles across something that catches his eye, he rescues it from impending doom, negotiates a price with the owner, takes it home, and then converts it into something of value. Some of the items that he has restored have taken on a whole new life. These previously condemned sale items become very attractive decorations, retro furniture, or artistic knickknacks. All they needed was for someone to see the value in them, make the purchase, and restore them to their previous beauty.
Jesus did the same for us when He purchased us with His blood. Every one of us is already on the way to the eternal trash heap, but God sees the value in our worn out, damaged lives. He has chosen us, purchased us with Christ's shed blood, so that He can restore and transform us into something of infinite worth.
Without Christ, we are damaged goods and good for nothing, but we have been redeemed by a steep price. Because of this, and the infinite skill of the artist, the condemned sinner finds his true worth.
"You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body" (1 Corinthians 6:20).
I'll Gum Sin Into Perdition!
One of the most famous quotes attributed to evangelist Billy Sunday is “Listen, I'm against sin. I'll kick it as long as I've got a foot, I'll fight it as long as I've got a fist, I'll butt it as long as I've got a head, and I'll bite it as long as I've got a tooth. And when I'm old, fistless, footless, and toothless, I'll gum it till I go home to glory and it goes home to perdition.”
We need to have this same relentless attitude in our own resistance to the temptations of sin.
"Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart" (2 Timothy 2:22).