Looking back over my life, I am very thankful for a wide variety of blessings from the Lord. I have been blessed with a great family. I have people in my life who love me and whom I love. For my family (immediate as well as extended), I am thankful. I’ve been blessed with experiences. There have been opportunities to experience new things, to travel, to taste, to see, to do. For those experiences, I am thankful. I’ve been blessed with friends. There have been people who have entered into my life during different seasons, those who have built me up and encouraged me to grow in Christ. For those friends, I am thankful. I’ve been blessed with things. There have been gifts and purchases, material things that have made my life more enjoyable. For those things, I am thankful. I have been blessed with food. I can’t remember every single cookie that I have consumed, but there have been a bunch…not to mention all of the other yummy things! For delicious food, I am thankful. Most importantly, I have been blessed by God. I have been offered new life in Jesus. I have been offered a restored relationship with the Father. I have been offered the Holy Spirit to dwell within my heart. For those (and so many other blessings of God), I am thankful.
Though my list could go on, I hope that with this short summary it is obvious that I have plenty for which to give thanks. I have a large list of when things have gone well, when things have gone smoothly, when the blessings of my life have been apparent, and for those, I am thankful. But, let’s be honest, it’s easy to give thanks for the blessings that we instantly recognize as blessings. But what about the hard stuff? Have I learned to see God’s hand in the trying times? Can I be thankful for the challenges? For the difficulties? For the blessings that did not immediately appear to be blessings?
So, I ask, have you come to recognize that there are occasions in your life that are hard, that are challenging, that seem like they are not blessings, but in reality they are actually blessings in disguise? Have you come to realize that sometimes the stinky stuff, the hard stuff, is not only just a blessing but can also be for your best? Have you come to trust God to the point that you allow God to use the difficulties in your life for your good? For your benefit?
Whenever I was a younger man, fresh out of college, I went through a bit of a rough patch. I had just moved to a new town, to a new area, to a new job. No friends close. No family close. No church connection. Just me off on a new adventure, wondering what would happen next. In all honesty, it was pretty scary and intimidating. I had no idea what lay before me, no idea what life would bring. Still, before long, things began to happen. I started working and was invited to go on a bike ride with some coworkers. “Great!” I thought. This was an opportunity to meet some people, to share some experience, to start to establish some friendships and some life in a new town. So, I headed off, excited for the ride. I got the bike together, met the folks, strapped on my helmet, and we proceeded on our adventure. It didn’t really go as planned. Within 5 minutes of beginning the bike ride, I crashed. Not just a little crash. A big crash. Apparently my Ohio-born, bike-riding self was not ready for Pennsylvania hills and jumps (even if they were smaller jumps). I went flying down the first hill, over a little jump, and when I landed my momentum took me over the handlebars.
So, there I was laying on the ground, and I thought, “What a great way to meet new people!” Talk about a first impression (and a whack to my pride)! I picked myself up, straightened up my bike, and was ready to continue the ride. The only problem? I noticed that what had previously been one, smooth clavicle bone now had a significant bump. Not only that, the bone on one side of the bump seemed to move separately from the bone on the other side. It was broken. My biking adventure was over before it ever really started. This time of meeting new people and beginning new relationships didn’t really work that well. Instead, I was sidelined, told to take it easy until my injury healed.
Now, a broken bone isn’t usually the end of the world, and it wasn’t for me either. I figured things would pick up, things would take a turn for the better.
Things picked up. I wasn’t convinced that it was for the better.
Within the first couple of months of my solo, adult life, I had moved where I had no friends, where I had no family, where I had no church. I had broken a bone and been limited in my activities. I was alone with no outlets, and no great prospects of things getting better. In addition, I learned that my mail was being stolen (pretty consistently, and I had to get a PO Box), I was robbed (not horrendously, but someone broke into my apartment and took some money and some other things), I was stalked/followed a bit by a shady neighbor (who likely committed the burglary), and I was feeling like life was pretty rough. During this time, I was not feeling “blessed” in the least. It was feeling quite the opposite.
But, do you know what happened?
God used it for my good, for my best.
Now, looking back, I can point to that time in my life as a turning point, as a place of change in my relationship with the Lord. I can point to that time as a season where God worked some things out with me, and I worked some things out with God. Before then, I had “known” God…in an intellectual, grew up in church, believed in God kind of way. After this time, I responded to God on a whole new level, and I came to know God in a whole, new way. I invited Jesus into my heart, into my life, and I began to understand my personal relationship with God…instead of just following some rules and trying to live a “good” life.
God took a time that was a low point, a time that was difficult, a time that was filled with hardships and struggles, and he used it for my best, he used it as a blessing. I don’t know if my life and my relationship with the Lord would be in the same place if it weren’t for those difficulties in that season. Now, I am thankful for the blessing of walking through a time that was stinky.
The other day I was reminded again that “stinky” can be used for what is best. Much like I’m not a mountain biker (still have too much Ohio in me or something), I’m not a farmer or a gardener. I appreciate farmers and gardeners tremendously and the work that they do, but I am not one. That said, we live on the edge of a working farm, and it does not always smell pleasant. In fact, sometimes it downright stinks. Right now, this week, it stinks.
Why?
Manure.
Plain and simple. Manure stinks. It stinks up the whole area.
When the farmers come around with the spreader truck and they spray that liquid wonder all over the fields, I know that I’m in for a bit of a stinky season. I know that it is not going to smell nice. I know that if my Grandma Morris were alive to drive past our area, she would exclaim, “Smell that nice, country air?!?!” Then she would laugh, and we would all laugh with her. (Grandma was a city girl. Whenever she’d take us on trips, she would always laugh and make comments about the country air stinking. She was always thankful that she didn’t have to smell it for too long.)
Do you know what else I know about the stink? I know that it is best. I know that the stinky stuff helps. I know that as bad as it smells that it benefits the crops. (I also know that the stink will fade…or that I will become immune to the smell, and that it is worth a little stink to live in the country.)
The stinky stuff? It’s best for the fields.
It can be the best for us too.
Sometimes, the hard seasons, the difficulties, the challenges, the setbacks, the obstacles, the stinky things are the very things that God uses in our lives to draw us closer in our relationship with him. Sometimes, the stinky stuff is used not only for our good but also for our best.
One of the challenges? Remembering that as we are going through those times. Trusting in God even when the manure is stinging our nostrils and we are wishing that we could fly on past like we are in our grandparent’s blue, Chevy Impala, zipping down the freeway instead of being stopped, living right in the field where it was spread. We wish we could speed through the stink. Instead, we’re living right in it. In those times, it is difficult to see the blessing of what God can do in the difficulties. It is hard to see the blessing of the trials when we are still in the midst of them. Nevertheless, we are asked to trust.
Paul said, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18)
Paul could look forward to those things that God was going to do in him, even when he was presently suffering. Paul could look forward to the glory that God was going to reveal, even in the midst of the stink. Paul could trust in God, even as his nose hairs were being singed by the smell of the liquid wonder being sprayed all over his fields. Why, because it was easy? Because he enjoyed the aroma?
No. Paul trusted God. Paul trusted God and knew “…that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
Friend, my hope is that we, too, may have this trust. My hope is that we, too, may look past our present sufferings and recognize that they are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. My hope is that we, too, may trust in God, that God would use even the stinkiest of times for our good (and sometimes even for our best).
~ Pastor Chris
