I am blessed with very unruly hair. Two-thirds of it is
curly, while the other third is straight as a pin. These fractions are distributed
randomly all around my head so there is no uniformity at all. Additionally, all
of it tends to be frizzy, and it is very thick. Actually, the more appropriate
word is big. I’ve worn it short, long, and every length in between, bangs and
no bangs; layered and blunt. There is
not a single style for which the characteristics of my hair are advantageous.
So, why am I talking about my hair on a biblical counseling
blog? Because it is the perfect illustration for what I want to communicate to
you today. There is just one way to make my hair look decent, and that is to
apply a flat iron to it. This ingenius invention reaches 400 degrees, and when I
place my hair between those two fiery metal plates, a miracle happens. My hair
is smooth, straight, glossy, and as close to perfect as it will get in this
world. As you can probably guess, I love my flat iron because it allows me to
control my crazy hair.
There are very few things in this world that are in our
control, right? Can you think of any? Off the top of my frizzy head, I can
think of very few. We humans don’t like not being in control. When bad things
happen, we get stressed out because they are not in our control. If you have
chronic pain or disability, you know this to be true. I had no control over the
surgeon who botched my knee replacement, yet, if God does not heal me, I must
live with the pain of that for the rest of my life. Think briefly about how you
got to where you are physically today, and ask yourself how much of that was in
your control?
Even if your pain was a result of your own sin, and could conceivably
have been avoided had you been obedient, there is still an element of it that
was not in your control. Abraham, Rachael, and Peter are all examples of
people who sinned in their response to trials, yet God used the consequences of
that sin for His glory! God sovereignly ordains everything that happens to us,
for His purposes. Even a passing glance at Romans 9 will confirm that for you.
Figuring out the balance between God’s sovereignty and human will is a task far
above my pay grade, but I will say this: I know that God is sovereign over
every aspect of my life[1],
and I know that His purposes are always for my good and His glory (Romans
8:28-30). Armed with these two facts, I can face any out-of-control situation
that comes my way.
What are you trying to control today, my friend? Is it
something more than frizzy hair? I promise you that it did not surprise our
Father. He always knows what you need, and if He is wanting to draw you closer
to Himself, teach you something, or grow your faith in Him, you can bet that He
will use whatever that trial is to do so. Your fiery trial can straighten out
your heart and smooth out what is ugly and out of control in your relationship
with the Lord. But you must be willing to look at it that way. Just as I have
trained my mind to hate my frizzy hair and long to control it, so perhaps you
have always hated your trial, and longed for an end to it.
I challenge you today to look at your trial from God’s
perspective. What might He be trying to teach you? Open your Bible, and start
looking for His message to you. The verses in the footnote below are a good
start. Pray, and ask your heavenly Father to reveal more of Himself to you,
even as you suffer this God-ordained trial. His Word never returns void, but
always brings about what He wants it to (Is 55:11). Trust that He is able, not
only to bring you through the trial, but also to make your faith stronger and your
heart more confident in Him than you were before. He is faithful, and will do
it!
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