Of Pebbles and Pearls

As a child, I loved collecting things on the beach. The goal was always to find a whole shell, (those of you who live in Oregon know how rare that is here.) but I would invariably end up with a handful of smooth pebbles instead.

I was drawn to the pebbles because of the shine and color they had while sitting there in the sand. But by the time I got home, I discovered that my collection of beautiful gems was actually just a pile of ordinary rocks.

When I go to the beach now as an adult, I still love collecting things, and am still always on the lookout for a complete and unbroken shell, and I still end up with a pocket full of rocks. I suppose some childhood things just stick with us.

But on a recent trip to the beach, I was struck by the fact that all the rocks are smooth and rounded. Even in the rockier places of the shoreline, the rocks are still smooth.

Why? Because they have been polished by the sand which the waves stirred up around them.

You and I are like pebbles, tossed around in the sand. God allows us to rub up against things or people that irritate us, not for the sake of the irritation, but for the sake of polishing us.  As James says,

“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” (1:2-4)

When we respond to the problems and irritants of life in faith, choosing Christlike attitudes and actions, our character is refined.

But more is at stake in our response to irritations than just our own sanctification.

To use another nautical illustration, consider the lowly mollusk. When irritants like a grain of sand slip through the it’s shell, it secretes a substance that covers the irritant, forming layers around it. This not only makes the mollusk more “comfortable,” it creates the beautiful gem-like treasure we call a pearl.

When you and I choose to respond to the trials of life in faith, God pours His grace, not only on us, but on the irritant as well, turning something that could have destroyed us into a radiant gem of His glory.

Hebrews 12 helps us understand much about the seemingly negative things God allows in our lives, and I challenge you to go read the entire chapter for yourself, but here are just the first few verses to help give us some perspective on how we should respond to the irritations of life:

“Wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith; Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” (vv.1-4)

When irritations arise in my life, I tend to pout and complain, and feel it isn’t fair. But that’s the selfish response of my sinful flesh. A faith-filled response to irritations gets our eyes off ourselves and fixes them firmly upon Christ. I have personally always found that last sentence of the passage above very helpful in resetting my perspective, because it reminds me how trivial my trials truly are in the grand scope of Christ’s sufferings.

As I am growing in the Lord, I am learning to recognize the difference between irritations (my flesh being bothered) and real problems (things that need to be addressed and dealt with.) There are some things that are simply matters of dealing with my own response, and I am learning that, while I am not responsible for what others say and do, I am responsible to respond to them in a Christlike manner.

So, how do we know what a Christlike response looks like? 1Peter 2:21-24 tells us:

“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth: Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously: Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by Whose stripes ye were healed.”

No sin, no guile, no reviling, no threatening, but rather complete, unwavering trust in the justice of God the Father.

One way I can tell if my attitude towards a specific irritation in my life is one or faith or fleshliness is by comparing it with the characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 6:22-23:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such here is no law.”

I am trying to train my heart and mind to stop in the midst of irritation and ask myself, “Am I demonstrating love? Joy? Peace? Am I responding with longsuffering and gentleness? Is my attitude characterized by faith, meekness, and temperance?”

Remember, our choice to obey God in our response to irritations doesn’t just affect ourselves. Hebrews 12:15 tells us that when bitterness springs up in our hearts, many are defiled by it.

This week, will you let the irritations of life destroy you, or will you submit to the smoothing process that makes you more like Christ, and allows you to be a conduit through which God can pour out layers of His grace, to bring forth a priceless pearl for His glory?

“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:1-3