Peas

The Princess and the Pea.
I always thought that this fairy tale was a ridiculous story. Being one to sleep through anything, I never understood how one little pea could be such a bother to the girl, especially through the countless mattresses. As children can be quite literal, I remember thinking that finding a way to climb to the top of those mattresses would be the painful and annoying part.

Today, I thought about the Princess and the Pea in a slightly more abstract context:
Everything can be 'right'. You're a guest in a castle, you're dressed in a lovely night gown, you're blessed with beautiful features, you're about to meet your handsome prince...
but one little thing can make you sleepless, can make you miserable...can take away your happiness.

For the princess, it was the agonizing pea. For the rest of us, it could be anything. It could be failure in a given area. It could be a fight with your mom, or a physical ailment. It could be losing your friend.
And no matter how much you try to cushion the hurt, you can still feel it...all the way through the dozens of mattresses. Everything else might be perfect, but It's still there. And you can't sleep.

What do you do with these "peas"? We certainly have control over many aspects of our lives, but perhaps the pea represents a domain you have no control over? Then what? Do I never sleep again? Do I remain bruised and miserable forever, because I can't fix it?

The apostle Paul had a "pea". Actually, he had a thorn....here's an exerpt of his letter to the Corinthians:

"To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
(2 Corinthians 12:7-10)

God sometimes choses to keep those troubling situations in our lives, because in our weakness, God's strength to sustain us is made clear. When we are weak, we realize God's incredible strength in our lives.
So maybe those peas aren't such a bad thing after all? Character building peas, I suppose.

I'm not as good as Paul, because I'm not delighting in my thorns and peas. I have yet to truly appreciate them as things that prove the power of God.
But, working towards that point, I believe that God can do mighty things...he did in the past and he can again. And I pray that he uses this time of pain and weakness to prove that He is a strong and powerful redeemer.

And, because this is the mattress I've been given, I'll keep sleeping on that pea.