If there is no struggle, there is no
progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are
men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without
thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many
waters.”
― Frederick Douglass
The other day I sat in the kitchen of a
couple who leads a local ministry that helps fix cars for people who can’t
afford expensive mechanics’ labor rates. We’d been discussing struggles, and
how some people seem to go through so many more than others.
How
does that seem fair?
Why does God seem to favor some people over others?
The man’s wife told me a story about their
trip to Napa Valley, California. She told me how she’d expected the landscape
to be full and lush, just like we see in all the romantic movies. Instead, the
scenery was dry and the vines looked brittle. She asked the vintner if this was
a bad year. The man explained that though other vineyards might prefer the lush
expanses of overloaded grapevines, the wine produced is lower quality. He has
found in through experience that the best wines come from the most stressed
grapes.
"I am the vine, you are the branches;
he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you
can do nothing.” - John 15:5
Shanna Delap is a single mom who enjoys
sewing, crafting, cooking, and reading everything from Tolstoy to the backs of
cereal boxes. She also loves to write, and is the author of the blogs
