As I look back over the last few years, I have a question for you. How did these years treat you? They were difficult years everywhere with disease, natural disasters, war, crime, and violence. Perhaps, like many, you faced great personal challenges such as unemployment, the loss of a loved one, or serious health issues.
Or maybe they were years marked more by personal failure. You took a few steps forward in your personal or spiritual growth, only to realize that your “old man” (your selfish nature) wasn’t as dead as you thought.
And you failed — again. You said things you shouldn’t have. You reacted in the wrong way. You allowed negative, selfish thoughts to rule your heart. It’s often those personal failures that can bring us down the most.
During difficult times, we have two choices
- We can either give up, thinking, “This is just too hard.”
- Or we can persevere, knowing that difficulties (even those of our own making) work for our good.
God allows trials in our lives because He wants to transform us into overcomers. He wants us to overcome obstacles and continue to run the race — as the following story illustrates.
The Strange Behavior of the Sand Crab
With a lesson on perseverance.
Teava was one of the most fruitful pioneer evangelists of a mission in the Samoan Islands. After many years of active service, he returned to his home island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. Though feeble and bent with age, his place in the church was never vacant, and he was always ready with a word of exhortation. On one occasion he said…
“When I was working on the island of Tutuila, I was often challenged by the strange behavior of a large species of sand crab. They burrow deep into the ground, and their holes sometimes extend for a considerable distance.
At night, this crab likes to go into the sea to lie in the saltwater and drink. Now it sometimes happens that as it walks through the tall grass and ferns to reach the water, some of its legs become sandy from contact with the dirt.
The crab is so annoyed by this misfortune that it slows down its march to the sea in order to tear off the offending legs! You may sometimes see a mutilated crab 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 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’s the kind of tenacity we need!
Determined to reach his goal, the sand crab removed anything he saw as an obstacle. Even his own legs, even though theyvweren’t holding him back! All he had to do was keep mobing 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. But not to the point of cutting off our legs or even pulling out our hair! I’m certainly not suggesting that! However, we need to focus on our goals – and eliminate all the things that stand in our way.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2
Overcoming trials and hurdles
Many of life’s challenges come in the form of trials. They’re difficult, and going through them can leave you wounded or feeling incomplete.
However, it’s important to keep going anyway. Giving in to discouragement or despair won’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.
If we allow it, God can use trials to teach us the tenacity of the sand crab. He can turn all the trials that come our way into special unexpected blessings in our lives.
Trials can teach us to lay aside any weight or entangling sin that weighs us down. They can teach us to persevere, no matter how difficult the journey becomes. Trials can help us see that God is with us and will help us reach the finish line, even if we are wounded or bruised along the way.
So lay aside every weight and keep going! God would rather we get to the finish line bruised and battered — than never get there at all!
If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.
Matthew 18:8
📷 Image credits: Man running | Crab | Beach view.