New Morning Mercies #354

I know that, like me, you want the present to be a more comfortable destination, but it isn’t that. It’s an uncomfortable preparation for a comfortable destination.

I would drag myself out of bed each morning and get dressed with feelings of dread. I knew what was facing me because I had been through it before. I would arrive at the locker room, where the lingering smell of yesterday’s sweat mixed with that of the ointment we were rubbing on yesterday’s bruises. As we slowly put on our equipment, our desire to be there mixed with our knowledge of the hardship that was before us. On the field, under the blazing sun and after a series of grueling drills, you wanted to vomit, to have just a moment to breathe, or to walk off the field and quit altogether. Night was taken up with ingesting a huge amount of food, taking a scalding-hot bath, receiving a rubdown, and getting to bed early. Morning came quickly and the routine started all over again.

This was the daily routine of the two-a-day summer football practices. It was a grueling but amazingly efficient way of preparing us for the season to come. It really did separate the men from the boys. It taught us to work through pain. It taught us the importance of getting each play right. It taught us how to work together and the importance of following the commands of the coach. And most of all, it whipped our bodies into shape. At the end of the summer, you weren’t as breathless as before and you couldn’t remember the last time you wanted to vomit in the middle of practice. Those two-a-day practices were hard, but they were for our good. And they weren’t our destination, but a preparation for the destination of the football season that was to come.

Yes, your life is hard right now. You are being called to do difficult things under the heat of the sun of this fallen world. You are called to say no to feelings of discouragement and the desire to quit. You are called to persevere, doing the same good things over and over again until they become second nature to you. You are called to work with others who are going through the same hardship and you are called to submit to the wise commands of your Savior King. You will face hardship tomorrow and the day to follow, but your hardship will not last forever. Yes, there will be moments of comfort along the way—times of rest, healing, and retreat—but they will be followed by more hardship. You must face these repeated hardships because the place where you are is not your destination. No, it is a place of preparation for the final destination that is to come. Preparation is hard, but you and I aren’t ready, so we need to be made ready for the final place that will be our home.

Today, thank God that he has a home waiting for you and that he loves you enough to use hardship to make you ready for your welcome to your final home. Your preparation won’t last forever, but your destination will have no end.

For further study and encouragement: Isaiah 48:1–11