September 8, 2016 — Words of Wisdom
Paul Coelho (author of such books as The Alchemist and Aleph. )

“The rails and the wheels of a train are in conflict and we can hear the noise of that friction between metals. But the rail justifies the existence of the wheel and vice versa. Without the other, each could not exist. The same is true with people. Without conflict we could not change or evolve.”
“And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5

I once heard some “way out there” scientist say that if there were only one person on the earth, they would have no personality. His theory was that you need two people to develop a personality – because you need another person to respond to. Now, to me, that sounds about right. We need other people to reflect off of, in a way, to project our sense of who we are and then to interpret the responses that come back.

This is what Paul Coelho is getting at in his quote. I was watching a commercial the other day for some baby product, and the spokesperson said something like “All you want to do is give them comfort and protection in their life.” As parents we do look to provide for our children, but if we always try to comfort and protect them, if they never suffer any adversity, they will never evolve – or in other words they will grow up expecting comfort and protection all of the time from a world that is neither comfortable nor protecting. As Paul said, “…knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” No matter the suffering we all will endure, Jesus is there with us in the Spirit to guide us, sustain us, and lead us through to new life, and to eternal life.

Pastor Dave