Tension is meant to move you, not to break you.
One late afternoon kayaking in misty rain on a lake still enough to see the reflection of even a floating feather, there were millions of little water strider bugs scooting around on the surface as if completely defying all rules of physics. Except that they weren’t. The water tension at the surface actually allows them to flit around like they do!
It made me think about another more commonly used analogy taken from lapidary, wherein the grinding and polishing of rocks through friction actually reveals their full beauty.
In the little bug example, tension allowed explosive wee bouts of activity amongst the concentric circles made by the drops of rain. In the other, the roughing-up of a seemingly ordinary dull rock creates a brilliant polish and reveals its true potential. A lot of nature’s beauty is actually created under tension. Take diamonds for example: When carbon is buried 100 miles under the Earth's surface and heated to a temperature of 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit, and then squeezed to a pressure of 725,000 lb per square inch, a diamond is formed. But too much more and even a diamond will break.
Now I’m not suggesting we should ever or even could ever be subject to that amount of pressure! But rather that trials are meant to be a time of refinement in passage. You are to move through them. Though God uses tension and pressure to mold and refine you most certainly, they are also intended to direct and move you, the same way the potter shapes the clay to form a pot.
Through my own journey of recovery and life dotted with trials throughout that seemed to never end, wise words of encouragement directed my attention to verses of refinement:
“Refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested.” Zechariah 13:9
“Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. Isaiah 48:10
And while God most assuredly does shape your character through refinement and affliction, the analogies in these verses do not infer one should stay in times of tribulation indefinitely so as to be refined down to inexistence!
Tension isn’t meant to harm you. But it will if you don’t move.
The little scooting water bugs know…
Amongst the rain and covering amazing distance given their size comparable to a grain of rice, the little guys really move around vigorously! They understand all too well that the same tension enabling them to scurry about effortlessly could fail them and lead to their their demise if they stay still for too long and the surface breaks. (Or they get eaten by a fish….)
Just like with the little bugs, tension is meant to move you along. And like the rough stone, tension is often God’s way of revealing a more polished, beautiful version of you.
But this can only happen if we learn from the wisdom He’s teaching us in the rain, and act accordingly. Tension in life, stress, illness, and trials of all kind, may be put in your path to change your course. If decisions are not made, and you stay where you are, the very pressure that is meant to refine you can harm you in profound ways. With courage though, and guidance sought, you too can be freely scooting around the surface and be enabled like the little bugs in the rain.
Are there areas in your life where you know what you are doing won’t get you to where you want to be, and it’s creating tension? Perhaps your health is suffering but you cling ever so tightly to this year’s diet. You may want to have a family one day, but don’t want to give up the running and your hormones aren’t okay with taking backseat to your dirty asics trainers.
Through life and our journeys of discovery and health we are faced with daily decisions and difficult circumstances. Grace abounds when it comes to making mistakes, thank goodness! But when the pressure builds, and tension starts to squeeze you, will you break, or will you move?
If you need help deciding which path to take at the fork, or you are paralyzed with fear but know you have to do something soon before you are crushed, let me help.
Tension can guide you, if you let it.
