For what purpose this?

When the going gets tough, the not-so-tough look for a way out, an excuse or at least someone else to make it all disappear.
This is not a new issue. That is ‘why’ we have specific Biblical admonishments against yielding to those natural inclinations.
For many reasons, people find that they are uncomfortable in their own bodies. Some even try to rationalize, “God would want me to be happy,” forgetting the Apostle Paul’s lesson, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances” (Phil. 4:11) and the command to “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (I Thess. 5:18).
The book of Genesis records the history of Joseph, the beloved son, sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. Although not born to be a slave, although he did not commit the crime of which he was later accused, Joseph chose to make the best of his situation and prospered. Surely, as a trusted slave, prison trustee and then state official he had the means of escape and ability to return home, but he stayed and served. Somehow through those years he learned to trust God, even when betrayed, set up for jail and forgotten.
He chose to stay, serve and honor God even when he was not in his prophesied position as the leader in his family.
God had told him he would lead. Joseph was not born to be a slave. He was the beloved son – but he accepted and made the best of his situation. Even when he could have rationalized “this is not what God planned for me,” he did not slip away in the middle of the night.
And because Joseph made the best of his circumstances, his overseers grew to trust him. He flourished and, ultimately, reached a position that enabled him to become, at last, his family’s protective leader.
If we do not look beyond our discomfort and our misery, we miss the whole point of His sovereignty to make us and place us in whatever circumstances He chooses. Our refusal to trust belies Job’s statement, “The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21)
Forty years ago, Joni Eareckson Tada, an active, athletic, young woman broke her neck became a quadriplegic. She hated it. She did not want to learn to accommodate to her physical circumstances. She begged friends to help her die.
Instead, her friends pointed out other options until she chose to embrace God in the midst of her circumstances. She found a way to serve Him even with her unplanned, unwanted physical realities.
She struggled with the same basic issues as the person wanting to be the other gender who says, “I don’t like the body I am in. I was meant to live in a different body. This is causing me a great deal of emotional distress to be stuck in this kind of body. No one understands how difficult this is.”
In her biography, she relates how she learned to accept her physical reality as God’s will for her. She has become a testimony of God’s grace, speaks around the world and has initiated programs to help expand the opportunities for others who need wheelchairs.
In America we spend way too much time seeking physical, emotional, psychological, even sexual comfort and escape. Our immediate discomfort must be fixed – and fixed now. Being married to a very sick person is way too difficult. Being stuck in an inadequate body, one not liked, is not fair, we say.
The path of following Christ, who lived to the honor and Glory of God, does not guarantee fun or easy settings. We were not created for personal comfort. We were created for His glory, His honor and His pleasure, not our own.
We were born this way to honor God, as Nick Vujicic discovered. Born without arms or legs, Vujicic says he questioned his worth and his circumstances for many years.
Then at 15, he read the Biblical lesson of the man born blind as recorded in John 9. Vijuicic was struck with Jesus’ explanation to his disciples regarding this man having been born blind: “this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
Vujicic embraced this same truth for himself and has become a motivational speaker for others, encouraging them to embrace their circumstances and make the best of them.
Via Internet videos, Vujicic demonstrates how he gets up, grooms himself for the day, swims, answers the phone and speaks to hundreds of teens.
We each have a choice: to whine and complain about the unfairness of life and seek a way out of our discomfort. Or we can take a prayer walk, visit a shut-in, make food for a family in crisis, volunteer or just put on a CD or DVD that encourages us.
We all struggle with something that is simply awful. Compassion says, “yes, it hurts, I wish I could make it better.” Sometimes, going through the hard thing builds a stronger, healthier person – a person better equipped to encourage and help other.
In other words, commitment to honor God in the midst of the worst of life’s experiences says, “Christ is sufficient for even this. I will honor Him even though I do not understand.” That decision can make all the difference in the world as Tada, Vujicic and Job have demonstrated.