Beyond the Rubble

“The quickest way to reach the sun and the light of day is not to run west chasing after it, but to head east into the darkness until you finally reach the sunrise”  – Gerald Sittser

Across the street from my apartment in Sisian, Armenia, is a river that flows to the village where I work and beyond.  It’s beautiful, but the area that separates the river from the path I normally take to school is filthy and cluttered with mounds of garbage.  I’ve always wished I could get closer to the river whenever I go for a run, but it seemed amongst the rubble there was no path to the other side.

By National Geographic

Serving in the Peace Corps has deeply instilled in me the belief that pressing through discomfort or hardship yields beauty and refinement of character.  In a fear-driven modern culture it’s easier and more common to recoil from discomfort or inconvenience, but I think there’s a transformative power that we miss when we allow fear to inhibit our exploration of how we interact with these challenges.

We stifle our growth.

There is true blessing in trial according to James:  “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work in you so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (NIV, James 1:2-4).

Not lacking anything.  Well that’d be nice. 

Embracing life’s challenges for the tranformative power they can have in us seems impossible at times.  But the resulting beauty that occurs when we push through darkness to find life can be found all throughout nature: birthing pains are followed by new life, caterpillars endure their cocoons before becoming butterflies, grapes are pressed into wine, and in Christianity, crucifixion leads to resurrection.  

So death leads to life, but in order to get there we have to push through the tough stuff – not avoid it.  Like training for a marathon, we build tolerance and learn to persevere by pushing through our pain, not cowering from it.

Death might seem a strange way to label the action that takes place during a trial, but I think that what dies in us when we overcome a challenge is fear.  It is replaced by trust.  

Today I plowed my way through piles of garbage for a good ten minutes before discovering it:  the beautiful river path on the other side that has become my new running route for its serenity, privacy, and unexpected waterfalls.  Sometimes all we have to do is press through our garbage in order to experience a little bit of heaven on earth.  

Weekly Grape:  Do I find joy in trial?