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Think about the amount of pressure required to transform coal into a diamond. What would be the human counterpoint of that necessity for pressure? How can pressure affect us?
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I would venture to say that the life itself is the pressure we endure. Like the lecture said, our reaction to that pressure is what is intriguing. We want things to be easy, and when suffering happens we want to find someone to blame for it – too often that is God. However, without the pressures of life we would not grow prepared for the challenges down the road. Without being poor as a child the adult might not know the value of money. Without the loss of a loved one early on the adult might not appreciate who they have in their lives now. To end, here is a sports analogy. After a great regular season a team goes into the playoffs and gets knocked out in the 1st round. The following year they win the championship after another strong regular season. What to do we always hear sports pundits say? “They needed to learn how to lose before they could win.” And no one disagrees. They are think that it is spot on. So why so different with life and suffering?
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We are creatures of ease. We want things with minimal effort. How often I hear my kids or my students say. “It’s too hard!” They have no perseverance to push through and learn what they can do. I think pressure is necessary so that we will get beyond feelings of things being hard. In truth, life is hard. But knowing that you don’t have to go through the pressure alone, knowing that the pressure is under the submission of a God Who loves you beyond all imagining, means that the pressure will bring about good. It will bring about strength. It will get you to the best place God has for you if you choose to trust Him in it. We get to choose to accept or reject God’s best.
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The pressures that form us as human beings primarily come through relationships. Proverbs 27:17 states it this way: As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. We can accept that sharpening or resist it.
