If you will would like a printed copy of this devotion, please e-mail me below and I will get back to you soon.
The Sting of Pearls
Got your yellow pad and nickel pencil out? If not, just stop long enough to make a mental list of some of the things that irritate you. Here are a few suggestions that will get you started:
(Traffic jams, Talkative People, Cold food, Interruptions, Reminders, Deadlines, Nosy neighbors, Being rushed, Late planes, Tight clothes, Peeling onions, Talkative people, Long lines, Crying babies, Phone calls, Misplaced keys, Untrained pets, Stuck zippers, Squeaking doors, Incompetence, Flat tires, Balancing checkbooks, Doing dishes, Mothers-in-law, Weeds, High prices)
Any of those make you want to grind your teeth? Some of it sounds like today, doesn’t it? It’s easy to get the feeling that you can’t win—no matter how hard you try. You start to entertain the thought I saw printed rather hurriedly on a small wooden plaque several weeks ago:
I am planning to have a nervous breakdown. I have earned it…I deserve it…I have worked hard for it…and nobody’s going to keep me from having it!
If it weren’t for irritation, we’d be very patient, wouldn’t we? We could wade calmly through life’s placid sea and never encounter a ripple. Unfortunately, irritations compromise the major occupational hazard of the human race. One of these days it should dawn upon our minds that we’ll never be completely free from irritation as long as we tread Planet Earth. Never, an alternative to losing our cool. The secret is adjusting.
Sure, that sounds simple. But it isn’t. Several things tend to keep us on the ulcerated edge of irritability. If we lived in the zoo, the sign outside our cage might read: “Human—Creature of Habit.” We are also usually in a hurry…inordinately wedded to the watch on our wrist. Furthermore, many of our expectations for the day are unrealistic. Echoing in our heads are the demanding voices of objectives that belong to a week, rather than a single day. All of this makes on the needle on our inner pressure gauge what like Mario Andretti’s tachometer. When you increase the heat to our highly pressurized system by a fiery irritation or two…or three…BOOM! Off goes the lid and outcome the steam.
It helps me if I remember that God is in charge of my day…not I. While He is pleased with the wise management of time and intelligent planning from day to day, He is mainly concerned with the development of inner character. He charts growth toward maturity, concerning Himself with the cultivation of priceless, attractive qualities that make us
Christlike down deep within. One of His preferred methods of training us is through adjustment to irritation.
A perfect illustration? The oyster and its pearl.
Pearls are the product of pain. For some unknown reason, the shell of the oyster gets pierced and an alien substance—a grain of sand –slips inside. On the entry of that foreign irritant, all the resources within the tiny, sensitive oyster rush to the spot and begin to release healing fluids that otherwise would have remained dormant. By and by the irritant is covered and the wound is healed—by a pearl. No other gem has so fascination a history. It is the symbol of stress—a healed wound…a precious, tiny jewel conceived through irritation, born of adversity, nursed by adjustments. Had there been no wounding, no irritation interruption, there could have been no pearl. Some oysters are never wounded…and those who seek for gems toss them aside, fit only for stew.
No wonder our heavenly home has as its entrance pearly gates! Those who go through them need no explanation. They are the ones who have been wounded, bruised, and have responded to the sting of irritations with the pearl of adjustment.
J.B. Phillips must have realized this as he paraphrased James 1:2-4:
“When all kinds of trials crowd into your lives, my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realize that they have come to test your endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men (and women) of mature character…
Deepening Your Roots: Daniel 6:1-28 // Job 23:8-12
Branching Out:
- If you are a woman, wear peal earrings, a ring, or a necklace today to remind yourself of the process we all go through and that it is possible to endure adversity and come out the winner. If you are a man, find some item that can help you remember today’s thought.
- When your first irritation of the day comes along, quickly tell yourself: “God is in control” and mentally make the pearl of adjustment.
- Decide to let God be in control of your day. Have fun by writing down on a three by five card what happens in the next twenty-four hours. Review the card before you hit the sack.
In Him,
David
