This is NOT Comfortable!

In the church, we celebrate a season of preparation in the weeks leading up to Christmas, called Advent. It's a time to wait and prepare our hearts for the celebration of Jesus coming into the world. This year, I decided during Advent to give something up for those few weeks to make a little more room in my life for Jesus.

Coffee. Yes, one of the things I think I can't live without. But I did it because I love Jesus. I wanted to prove to myself that Jesus is really the One I can't live without. Plus, it made me feel the discomfort that comes with waiting for the fulfillment of things you long for.

I tend to try to avoid pain and discomfort.
But what if pain and discomfort are part of God's plan to sharpen us and make us stronger?
To help us identify with the pain of others and be able to minister to them better?
To shape our lives and hearts to look more like Jesus?

I certainly don't want to miss out on that!

It's a choice. We choose to either embrace or shun discipline and training in our lives. And we choose to either embrace or harden our hearts to the pains and hard times that come without asking our permission.

If we allow God to mold and form us through these things, His magnificent beauty will be manifested.

"Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms,
you would never see the true beauty of their carvings."
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross