“Pressure makes diamonds…dragons make heroes”. Fact & fiction both agree that adversity has the potential to bring out the best in those who endure it. Folks who want to be great are a dime-a-dozen, but those who will do what it takes to get there are one-in-a-million. If you want to be remembered in the future, you’d better be ready to embrace pain in the present. History reveals that some of this world’s most notable characters were forged in some of life’s least comfortable climates.
For Joseph it was a prison. With Moses it was the desert. For David it was the wild. Jonah went through a great fish, Shadrach went through a fiery furnace, and Job went through a figurative hell. Each of them enduring their own private agony & bewilderment before finally emerging as Kings, Prophets, & Patriarchs.
Greatness & glory have their prerequisites. Always have…Still do.
GOOD AS GOLD
People like these are scarce, but every generation has them. They are, what the Scriptures would call “GOLD” (Zech. 3:9)…a small minority of men & women who’s faith in God doesn’t turn to ash when they’re put through the fires of adversity. A ‘remnant’ who stays loyal to the Lord in spite of the cost involved. Those who stand out among their contemporaries for choosing pain over pleasure when God’s will involves pain. They serve Jesus in good times and in bad, for better or for worse, and are memorialized for doing so.
Remarkable men & women don’t just come out of nowhere…
But where is this remnant today? Gold in the hills has always been hard to find, but faith among men, even more so. Jesus Himself wondered, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?” (Lk.18:8). It’s alarming to realize that the closer we come to Christ’s return, the softer the Christian community is getting. Buried beneath 21 centuries of cultural sediment, it’ll be a wonder if Jesus finds us at all.
PRICELESS GEMS
How many modern Christians are missing their chance to become the next Joseph simply because they won’t “let themselves be cheated” (I Cor.6:7)? How many believers are still living in worldly bondage just so they can avoid a trek through the desert? Or how many of us are bowing at the feet of man-made idols because we’re too scared of being thrown into the proverbial furnace?
We fail to see hardship & privation for what it really is: A gift from God that keeps us from becoming the kind of person we all know is wrong. And if you’re not careful, you too could turn into the very person you’ve long despised. It all begins when your attention shifts from pleasing God, to protecting self.
Greatness & glory have their prerequisites
How many have suffered a stunting of their spiritual growth as soon as they found a spouse and secured a decent “nine-to-five”? They’ve grown more and more comfortable, while becoming less and less commendable. Their schedule is full, but their life is empty. Instead of turning into gemstones & dragon-slayers, they’ve become feeble & forgettable. It happens all the time.
IN THE CRUCIBLE
The Christian faith is God’s invitation to an “abundant life”, but that abundant life includes pain and distress. Genuine Christianity is meant to bring a person to their melting point because it’s designed to produce great men and women, not people marked by mediocrity. If you want your life to count, you’ll have to carry your cross.
Every golden ring is born in a crucible. Apart from a little heat, even the most precious of metals remain hard, unattractive lumps. Without any spiritual fortitude, a life gets ugly. Tomorrow’s church will be void of prophets & patriarchs if today’s Christians are void of patient endurance.
PRECIOUS FAITH
I was recently asked, “Is there more to life than this?” The answer is “yes”, permanently yes. God always has more for you than what you currently enjoy of Him. The question isn’t whether God has more in store, but whether you’ll continue forward in the right direction despite the pain that awaits.
David did it, Joseph did it, and with a little faith of your own, you can do it too (as long as you’re willing to face the heat). Remarkable men & women don’t just come out of nowhere…they come out of adversity.
The only way into the Kingdom of God is “through much tribulation” (Acts 14:22), so don’t pawn off what could have been a 24-karat faith for a handful of fool’s gold.
“Trials show that your faith is genuine. It gets tested as fire tests & purifies gold (though your faith is far more precious than mere gold). So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world”
–I Peter 1:7