Thursday, March 19, 2009

To Help or not to Help?

One day a small opening appeared on a cocoon, a man sat and watched for the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and could go no further. So the man decided to help the butterfly, he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened!

In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly. What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening was God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

I'm sure we all go through struggles and trials in life. After all, it's life. Often we wish that life was smoother, the grass was always green and we could sit under the sun drinking milk shakes all day long (without the threat of skin cancer of course). We wish our problems would just disappear because they JUST SEEM TOO TOUGH. We think that we cannot overcome the obstacles and neither do we lift a finger to try. Many times, I caught myself sitting and glaring at my problems instead of getting up and beating the problems to mush. For some reason or another, I didn't know I had the capability to do so.

But I realise that struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly.

I asked for strength and God gave me difficulties to be strong.

I asked for wisdom and God gave me problems to solve.

I asked for prosperity and God gave me brain and brawn to work.

I asked for courage and God gave me danger to overcome.

I asked for love and God gave me troubled people to help.

I asked for favours and God gave me opportunities.

I received nothing I wanted and I received everything I needed.

When it comes to things like Physics and Chemistry, there are some things which can never be done. Just like when a ball is dropped, it will never fly to outer space. Just like when you add metal and acid, you will never get oxygen.

But when it comes to living things, there is no such thing as 'it can never be done'. -Pn. Shanta (my Biology teacher)