We have all heard the song, "Amazing Grace" and many know the lyrics, "I was blind but now I see."
Vision, perspective, and understanding can make all the difference in one's life, can't it? Recently I was "pondering" (Yes, Kristin Bridgman, I do it too) I was pondering about how we are all wired differently and how it seems that I have been wired to be "a problem solver." But when you think about it, haven't we all have been 'taught' to be problem solvers? Think back to school. Arithmetic (Math for you kids) was nothing more than problem solving, was it not? And so in some ways we've all been programmed to "solve problems."
Math frustrated me in school. I am very methodical and if I missed the foundation for solving one problem it took me into a downward tailspin for the next equation. And if I can be brutally honest, life can frustrate the bajeebies out of me from time to time. Such is the plight of the recovering perfectionist. But you don't have to be a perfectionist to get frustrated by life's problems once in a while.
As I sat and pondered I thought about my own journey through life and how there has been a certain "problem" that has followed me through out my whole life. And in my journey I have sought out various ways to "fix" it. I've been pretty desperate at times too and done some pretty crazy things in order to cure this issue. (That's another story for another day.) Oh don't get me wrong, I've also prayed about it asking the Lord to help ME to fix the problem. Sometimes I'm even "crazy" enough to ask HIM to fix it. Before you start telling me about having a mustard seed of faith, let me explain.
I've come to the conclusion that sometimes, the Lord will not fix or take away a problem in our lives and for a good reason. Sometimes problems simply are not meant to be solved. Imagine that. There's a novel idea. (Sorry to all my math teachers along the way. Maybe I didn't get it because I wasn't suppose too, ha!) But seriously, sometimes the purpose of the problem is not so we can solve it, but so we can learn THROUGH it. *Perhaps we only have sight when we have learned another kind of lesson. Maybe, just maybe, its not the answer to the problem that is to be sought but the purpose for the problem itself.
Gratitude is truly where we will find contentment and peace. I would even go so far as to say that we can be grateful not only in our problems (trials) but for them.
What if in those difficult moments of staring at our unrelenting unsolved problems instead we stop and look at them as blessings; lessons that become the trajectory in which we are meant to walk and perhaps even RUN? Whether it be a health issue or a relational issue or a financial issue, no matter what our individual problem may be maybe, just maybe, the goal should not be to "solve" it but to accept it. . . as a gift?
Perhaps having our eyes opened is truly about recognizing the beauty- even in the ugly- and be grateful, knowing that even the ugly is part of the greater (more lovely) picture for our lives. Perhaps the actual cure begins not when all is right, but when we pray, "All right and Thank you." Could that be the moment when we truly begin the journey toward the rich and amazing purpose God has for us~
The purpose that fulfills the deepest desires of our heart because He is able to use us in ways we'd otherwise never dream?
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