Many times the RIGHT thing is hard.
But the hard thing
is not always the right thing.
Last week I wrote about my discouraging experience with turmeric.
To bring you up to speed, I had been drinking a concoction with turmeric in it in attempts to boost fertility, only to find out that there are just as many websites that say it can help you get pregnant as there are ones that say it is actually used as a contraceptive!
It would have been one thing if the elixir was tasty. But no. Drinking turmeric was NOT fun or easy. It took time to make it and will power to swallow it.
Reflecting on this aspect, I realize I've often made decisions and lived my life by the motto: "if it's hard, it must be right." Drinking turmeric is case in point.
Another personal example would be living on the other side of the world. 'It must be what God wants me to do, because it's 'harder.' Of course, staying here is 'hard' in different ways! I know now that each place has it's own joys and hardships.
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| Many times the RIGHT thing is hard. But the hard thing is not always the right thing. |
To bring you up to speed, I had been drinking a concoction with turmeric in it in attempts to boost fertility, only to find out that there are just as many websites that say it can help you get pregnant as there are ones that say it is actually used as a contraceptive!
It would have been one thing if the elixir was tasty. But no. Drinking turmeric was NOT fun or easy. It took time to make it and will power to swallow it.
Regardless of which is harder, and regardless of if drinking turmeric would even be considered a 'hard thing to do' compared to other significantly harder things, the point is that the level of difficulty can't be the only determining factor for our choices.
And of course it wasn't the only determining factor in me drinking turmeric.
But given that it was hard did make me feel like I was doing something worth something.
It's true, most things in life that are worth something require hard work.
But is that hard work a reflection of my strength or the Lord's?
Doing hard things and succeeding at them can result in my own glory if I am not careful.
I believe God wants me to use the ingenious mind He gave me to research, to study, to learn, to grow, to make good decisions based on the information I have. I definitely don't believe in "sitting back and relaxing."
However, there may be situations where I am placing too high of a value or trust in what I can do, and not truly submitting myself to the will and the power of the Lord. Drinking turmeric in and of itself isn't necessarily right or wrong morally, and it may or may not have helped with fertility. But my experience with it has reminded me that at the end of the day, the Lord wants me to trust Him, and only Him.
I'm thankful that the Lord is constantly giving me circumstances to increase my dependence on Him, because He knows that this posture is the best one for me. The one where I know I can't, and only by His grace, I trust that He can.
But given that it was hard did make me feel like I was doing something worth something.
It's true, most things in life that are worth something require hard work.
But is that hard work a reflection of my strength or the Lord's?
Doing hard things and succeeding at them can result in my own glory if I am not careful.
I believe God wants me to use the ingenious mind He gave me to research, to study, to learn, to grow, to make good decisions based on the information I have. I definitely don't believe in "sitting back and relaxing."
However, there may be situations where I am placing too high of a value or trust in what I can do, and not truly submitting myself to the will and the power of the Lord. Drinking turmeric in and of itself isn't necessarily right or wrong morally, and it may or may not have helped with fertility. But my experience with it has reminded me that at the end of the day, the Lord wants me to trust Him, and only Him.
I'm thankful that the Lord is constantly giving me circumstances to increase my dependence on Him, because He knows that this posture is the best one for me. The one where I know I can't, and only by His grace, I trust that He can.
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