Well today was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping and there was a nice cooling breeze. It was one of those days where you look outside and go ‘Its a crime to stay inside’. So since I’m not a criminal I went outside. I brought a book, some food and a bag filled with pillows and jackets to act as a pillow and laid on the grass.
While I was out there I stared at the sky for a good 20-30minutes and just enjoyed God’s Creation. As I lay there I noticed that every now and again the sun would be blocked by a cloud and the sky would darken a bit but in a few seconds the cloud would be blow away and it would be bright and sunny. Near the end I noticed a cloud block the sun it was pretty big and dark so for a while it blocked the sun out and it started to get a bit cold cos of the wind. It was like this for a bit cos the cloud wasn’t getting blown away it was just sitting, lingering there blocking the sun but in the end it eventually went and it was sunny once again. God used this and spoke to me in that moment cos just before it cleared up I was about to go inside cos it wasn’t as nice as before.
This is how our spiritual lives are many times. When it gets less than ideal we want to go inside, quit, skip town, throw in the towel, whatever you want to call it. We just want out. I learnt that the seasons in our lives are just like clouds blocking the sun. Every now and again we have a dull patches where we go from the nice sunshine to a cloud blocking the sun and we get a bit cold but more often than not we don’t quit cos we knew it was only momentary, that there are things that just come up and we know that in a few days the problem will be gone. However there times when a big cloud comes along and blocks out the sun. It lingers there not looking like its going to move and we are getting colder and colder. This is when we want to quit the most. It is when the lingering trials come that we want out. It is during these trails that we learn about ourselves.
These are the trials that define us. These are the times that our true character is revealed, not built. Character is never built in the hard times, do you think that the walls of a fortified city are built when they are being attacked? No, the true measure of the walls are revealed in that time to see if they can withstand the attack. This is how it is with our character, when we find ourselves in the long, lingering trials, that it when we see if it has be built to last or if it was the last to be built. If we have been constantly improving our character day in, day out to last, or was our character the last thing to be built after we have show off our skills and done the things that look good.
Tangent. One phrase that gets thrown around a lot in church is ‘everything rises and falls on leadership’. I reckon that’s it is true, to an extent, but I’d like to take it one step further and say ‘everything rises and falls on character’. Leadership at the end of the day is a skill, its the ability to lead people. It’s like being able to drive a car, I know the right things to do to get it to do the things I want it to do. To have leadership doesn’t mean you have character. Someone with a great leadership ability will come crashing down if there is no character to support it, its just a matter of time. End tangent.
Back to the clouds. I’ve noticed there is one thing that get us through those prolonged trials, that is the measure of our faith. There are many others like perseverance, standing firm, trust etc but they all hinge on faith. I’ll explain with the cloud thing.
When I was laying there watching clouds block out the sun, they never got rid of all the light from the sun, it was still there. Even though I didn’t feel the sun or see the sun, it was still there. The thing that kept me lying there waiting for the sun was cos even though the cloud was hanging there for ages, lingering, I knew that soon it would pass and once again I’d see and feel the sun. I had faith that the sun was still there. As a result from that faith, I persevered, I stood firm, I trusted. It all stemmed from that faith that the sun was still there. I never stopped believing that the sun was simply behind a cloud, not that the sun had somehow been put out by the cloud. This all sounds dumb cos we know that is crazy talk, but somehow we can’t pull the same principle to our walk.
Our faith in God needs to be strong. When trials come and we struggle to sense God, we struggle to see him we have the faith that He is still there. He is simple behind the cloud. That God at any moment is going to pop out from behind our trial and we will experience Him in His full glory and full radiance once again.
This leaves us with a few question: How strong is my character? my faith? What am I doing to improve them?
