Not Easy, But Simple.

So, I've been hesitant to post this week, wrestling with all that's going on in my life. But I feel like I finally found the words to say what I want to say. Today's devo really hit home.

"The process always begins with intense pain but ends with joyful transformation." The pain sucks, as the devo goes on to say "you'll hate the pain." The pain is, well...painful. :) But we are also called to "rejoice in our sufferings, because suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope" (Romans 5:3) and "perseverance must finish it's work so you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything" (James 1:4). Rejoice in suffering?! What?! Why would anyone want to do that? The only reason I do, is because I know that joyful transformation is coming. I know that I will be made complete in Him when the process has run it's course. It's a process, and the process takes time, time that I won't necessarily understand. God's time is outside of worldly time, and it's on His time that the process will become complete. I feel like I've been learning this lesson for way too long now, but I'm thankful that God continues to remind me of this truth.

As I've heard so many times from Sonshine trainings, He never said it was going to be easy, but it's simple. The simple truth is to continue in the process. To keep running to Him, even in the midst of pain. Daily, to give the pain to Him, so He can bear the burdens. Sometimes, those things are the hardest things to do. But they are SO SIMPLE. He's right there, waiting for us to turn around and embrace Him when we feel the most alone. He's waiting to bear our burdens when we feel like we can't carry them any longer. Not easy...but simple.

Ok...this thought just popped into my head, it goes along with the transformation part of today's devo, but it might be a little out of place in this post. At training a group of us talked about the greek word "metamorpho," and Amanda told us that this kind of change could not be done by oneself, something/someone on the outside must change us. And we must submit to the change. We must submit to the cocoon in order to become a butterfly. We must submit to the process, in order to experience the joyful transformation. We must submit to the pain, in order to become complete, not lacking anything.