The Point in Pointless Things

Sometimes we’re riding through life and something hits us. Something hard. Something that hurts. And all through the trial, we keep whispering to ourselves to trust, that God has a reason, that somehow this disaster is going to transform into something amazing.

Sometimes we see that it does. Maybe midway through the agony, we watch the reason unfold. Or perhaps, as is more often the case, years pass by before we ever see the true purpose in our heartache.

And we feel good. Because we know God had a plan, and we know He allowed it to happen for our good, and we know the pain was converted into greater use.

But sometimes, friend, we never find the purpose. We never see any good that came from what we went through. We never get a glimpse into the mind of God by seeing the power of His plan.

Why would He do that? What is the point in things that have no purpose? We’re His children. Couldn’t He have spared us the useless trials, the ones He was never going to follow up on? Why let us endure such grief with no apparent reason?

But see, there is a reason. A big one. Maybe the biggest of all—and strangely enough, we always seem to overlook it.

Because even though the hardship reaped no wheat on earth, or changed no lives, or healed no souls—it did something else.

It changed you.

It took the person you were yesterday, the one who drifted through life carelessly and happily, and drove a nail of reality through your soul. It showed you who you were when things were tough, when you were blind and helpless and alone, when you had to grope anxiously for the God you believed in. It taught you how to trust. How to pray. How to grit your teeth and stand strong, even when your very foundation was crumbling.

That was the point, friend.

To mold you, to make you, to mature you into the child of God you were always meant to be. Were it not for this trial, perhaps you would’ve never had the stamina to face the next one. Were it not for those tears, maybe you would’ve never learned the power of crying out to God on your knees. Were it not for that hurt, maybe along life’s road, you would have strayed away from the path you were meant to cling to.

So friend, when you’re going through life and something hits you, and you’re asking God what’s the point, and you’re questioning how He could allow something so pointless to wreak havoc on your life…

Don’t worry.

Rest assured.

The point is much greater than you could ever comprehend.