Standing Strong

Standing Strong

We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.

2 Corinthians 4:8-9

It ended in 1994, but for two years, scientists sequestered themselves in an artificial environment in Arizona called Biosphere 2. Inside their self-sustaining community—about the size of 2½ football fields—the Biospherians created a number of mini-environments, including a desert, rain forest, even an ocean. Nearly every weather condition could be simulated, the one exception being naturally occurring wind. Over time, the effects of their windless environment became apparent. A number of trees bent over and even snapped. Without the stress of wind to strengthen the wood, the trunks grew weak and could not hold up their own weight.

Another team of researchers at the University of California at Berkeley did an experiment some time ago that involved introducing an amoeba into a perfectly stress-free environment: ideal temperature, optimal concentration of moisture, constant food supply. The amoeba had an environment to which it had to make no adjustment whatsoever. Oddly enough, it died.

Apparently there is something about all living creatures, even amoebas, and especially humans, that demands the challenge of adversity in order for healthy survival. And this is true even within our treasured relationships. Adversity makes us stronger. Without it, our inner character would literally shrivel up and die. Of course, no one would ever choose any kind of trauma or adversity, but when it blows into your life, recognize that it will make you and your relationship stronger. No matter what kind of troubles you face together, you will never be abandoned by God, never be destroyed. He knows exactly what your “marriage-sphere” needs in order to survive.

Adversity is like a strong wind. . . . It also tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that afterward we see ourselves as we really are.

—Arthur Golden