Looking back over the last few years, I’d like to ask you a question. How did they treat you? They were difficult years everywhere with all the disease, natural disasters, war, crime, and violence. And perhaps, like many, you had to face great personal difficulties such as unemployment, the loss of a loved one, or serious health problems.
Or maybe they were years marked more by personal failure. You took a few steps forward in your personal or spiritual growth, only to discover that your “old man” (your selfish nature) wasn’t as dead as you thought.
And you failed – again. Said things you shouldn’t have. Reacted in the wrong way. Or allowed negative, selfish thoughts to rule your heart. Often it’s those personal failures that can bring us down the most.
We have two choices during difficult times.
- We can either give up and think, “This is just too hard.”
- Or we can keep going, knowing that difficulties (even those of our own making) work for our good.
God allows trials in our lives because He wants to make us overcomers. He wants us to overcome obstacles and continue to run the race – as the following story teaches.
The strange behavior of the sand crab
With a lesson in perseverance.
One of the most fruitful pioneer evangelists of a certain mission in the Samoan Islands was a man named Teava, who, after many years of active service, returned to his home island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. Though very feeble and bent with age, his place in the church was never vacant; and he was always ready with a word of exhortation. And on one occasion he said…
When I was working on the island of Tutuila, I often felt challenged by the strange behavior of a large species of the sand crab. It burrows deep into the ground, the holes sometimes extending for a considerable distance.
At night, this crab likes to go into the sea to lie in the salt water and drink. Now it sometimes happens that as it walks through the tall grass and ferns to reach the water, some of its legs get sandy from contact with the dirt.
The crab is so annoyed by this misfortune that it slows down its march to the sea to tear off the offending legs! You may sometimes see a mutilated individual limping along without two or three of its legs – a self-inflicted punishment!
In some rare cases, an animal has even been known to tear off all eight of its legs in order to escape the defilement. It is then forced to drag itself along the ground with its claws, with considerable difficulty, until it reaches its hole, where it hides until the legs partially regrow, though never to their original length and beauty.
(Adapted from a story in The Biblical Illustrator; in the Public Domain.)
That is the kind of tenacity we need!
Determined to reach his goal, the sand crab was willing to remove anything he saw as an obstacle. Even his own legs, though they were not what was holding him back! All he had to do was keep pushing toward the sea and let the water wash away all the sand that was slowing him down.
We too need such perseverance to overcome obstacles. Not to the point of cutting off our legs or even pulling out our hair. I’m not suggesting that! But we need to focus on our goal – and get rid of all the things that get in our way.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2
Overcoming trials and hurdles
Many of life’s hurdles come in the form of trials. They’re hard, and going through them can leave you with wounds or missing pieces.
But it’s important to keep going anyway. Giving in to discouragement or despair doesn’t change anything – except our ability to fight and overcome. Nor does it make the trial disappear – it remains, a thorn in our side or a mountain to climb.
And if we allow it, God can use trials to teach us the tenacity of the sand crab. And turn the trials into special unexpected blessings in our lives.
Trials can teach us to lay aside any weight or entangling sin. They can teach us to keep going no matter how hard the going gets. They can help us see that God is with us, ready to help us reach the finish line. Even if we are wounded or bruised along the way.
So lay aside every weight and keep on going. Because God would rather we get to the finish line bruised and battered, if necessary, than not get there at all!
And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.
Matthew 18:18
📷 Image credits: man running; crab; beach view
Signora Sheila 