The Down Side of Growing Up

Today we woke up to another several inches of fresh fallen snow. When I went out to first try and ‘sweep’ the snow off the car, I began by pushing the broom across the roof. When I did, it made a tunnel through the snow and the thought that immediately ran through my mind was – “This is perfect snow for digging snow tunnels and building snow forts.”

Isn’t it amazing how our perspective changes as we age, I mean in some cases, totally! Our situation determines to a great degree how we see things. Something can go from being a blessing to being a curse, without really changing intrinsically at all, but only because our situation has changed which then changes our perspective on it. As they say, “Some see the glass half empty and some see the glass half full. And then there are those who know if they stick around long enough they are going to end up having to wash that glass.”

This is not a new thought and hardly original but every time I come back to this realization I can’t keep from thinking there must be some profoundly practical lesson that we should be learning in these instances because they present themselves to us a hundred times a day. So what is it, I wonder?

Maybe, and I hesitate to even continue because usually when I learn a lesson, it is one that I have learned a thousand times before and have somehow managed to forget again! Anyway, maybe God is trying to tell us that we are what needs to change, not our situation or the circumstances around us.

I read a story one time about a farmer who had two boys. One day a neighbour was giving him a hard time because he was making his boys work hard all day out in the corn field. The neighbour made some comment about how reprehensible it was for the man to be treating those boys like that just so he could raise a bunch of corn. His response is a classic. He said, “I’m not raising corn. I’m raising boys.”

Maybe that is how we need to look at all of this. After all, God does control the weather. (See Job 38:22-30) He can make it snow or stop whenever He wants. But maybe God isn’t so much concerned about the weather, or our plans for the day either for that matter, as He is about us. And maybe He isn’t as concerned about our comfort, or our agendas, as He is about our character. Maybe the reason we are always struggling with our environment is because without struggle, without adversity, there is no growth. Maybe God isn’t changing the weather. Maybe He’s just changing us.

Steve