joy in growing "under the load"

Do you use the saying, "Things that don't kill you outright make you stronger."? I have used it a lot in the past few years. I first got to know it many years ago in a little book called Grooks, by Piet Hein. It seemed that it was written in the context of wartime and some other heavy duty stuff. Anyway, I have found that many people think it and say it, and it becomes a way of encouraging each other about the growth that comes through facing crises, going through them, and coming out on the other side.

Yet I know that there are those who don't survive crises well, and I ponder what kind of helpful words I can have for them. None of us wants to offer cold comfort, or be Job's comforters. We want to be there for others, and be WITH them in their struggles, not give the impression that we know what is really happening or can articulate it better for them than they can for themselves. This seems a particular problem with Christian counselling, and I appreciated books I read about it in my courses that pinpointed it. They said that Christians too often have the "There you are" approach to people and their problems, and try to pigeonhole them and label them. They are the Job's comforters who really can get it all wrong.

One author helpfully suggested that what is needed is a "Where are you?" approach, the question God asked Adam and Eve when they were hiding from Him in the garden. We need to ask others and ourselves be asked where they and we are. When we articulate that to others and to ourselves then we can ask for the help we need to move forward in our lives.

Nevertheless, we often do face things that feel like they are killing us, or could, and we often do grow stronger in doing so. Yesterday I saw a former mentor and brought her briefly up to date on what has been happening with me. I used the word growth. Her response was " It's the growing that matters." I couldn't agree with her more. And that articulation reinforced the words that jumped out at me from the reading in Streams in the Desert for yesterday: " I grow under the load."

I also read the following in that same entry:

"He draws close, to ripen my wisdom, to deepen my peace, to increase my courage, to augment my power to be of use to others, through the very experience which is so grievous and distressing."

So may it be for all of us today. May we remember also that Jesus walks with us, and that the yoke we carry is one we do so in His strength, and may we have the courage to cast off any yoke which is not one that He would have us carry, and may we change the way we carry our yokes so that they are carried in His strength, and then those yokes will not kill us, and we will "grow under the load."