Growth Through Trials

Trials can take many forms--sickness, loss, relationship issues, emotional confusion, struggles with sin, abusive treatment, and so on.  The subject of trials and how to address them is one of the most universally relevant aspects of Christianity to the everyday lives of many people, regardless of geography, social status, or era.  As such it demands a thorough, rational explanation by Christians.

Pain forces us to choose how we will respond to it, and in reacting we can decide to waste away or grow stronger, to turn away from reality or sprint towards it.  All trials have the potential to leave us emotionally weaker or emotionally stronger.  Each one can be a way to prepare for any that will follow.  One does not need to be a Christian, or even a theist, to recognize the power that difficulties have to reorient personal priorities and transform the hearts of those who endure them.

In suffering, one can learn to cherish things that he or she may have taken for granted before (or to cherish things more deeply), to empathize more deeply with others, and to seek God as a refuge--one that does not necessarily remove personal tribulations, but grants the strength to stand firm in the midst of them.  Suffering can equip us to reach out to others who are facing or will face similar or identical problems, and can give us the experiential background necessary to understand their pains, which can amplify the effectiveness of our words and actions to them in such times.

It is not that we cannot grow in periods not marked by suffering, but that suffering can be a great catalyst for positive moral change (Romans 5:3-4) and intellectual reflection.  Trials can purge away apathy and selfishness and assumptions and leave us thoroughly transformed in the wake of them.  They can bring one to new depths in a relationship with God, and, ironically, to a point of greater life contentment and peace on the other side.

Time can enable a healing of inner wounds that, in the present while enduring the brunt of a trial, might seem to us like they will never heal, or even cannot.  With time pain can leave, and minds can find peace.  This is not to say that all one needs to recover from any difficulty is the passage of time, though, as relationships--both with God and with other people--and a right understanding of reality also can play large parts in the process of healing.  My best friend has been a source of deeply-needed emotional support during a variety of trials.  She has helped me through many difficulties, and I have helped her through trials of her own.  Having a close friend to confide in, though it cannot necessarily change the circumstance, can make a trial much more bearable.

And honest words towards God during trials can mark a spiritual catharsis that prompts deep growth.  It is easy, quite easy indeed, to view God as loving or to live for Christianity when in a trouble-free time.  But when commitment is tested, if it does not unravel, it can become much stronger, and in this way a relationship with God can become more precious and empowering than it was before being subjected to the woes of human life.

There is more to the subject of trials than merely what I have written here.  But, the topic being too important and too large for one post, I intend to write more about the matter in the near future.