By: Steve Wilmot
A man found a cocoon hanging from the branch of a tree in his backyard. Fascinated by it, he checked on it every day, hoping to see the butterfly appear.
One day he noticed a small opening in the cocoon. He pulled up a chair and watched the butterfly as it struggled for hours to force its body through that little hole.
Suddenly it stopped making any progress and looked like it was stuck. 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, although it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.
The man didn’t think anything of it and sat waiting for the wings to enlarge, and the butterfly to flutter away. But that didn’t happen.
Despite the man’s good intentions, he didn’t understand butterflies need to fight through the restricting cocoon because the toil forced fluid from the body of the butterfly into the wings so it can fly. No struggle, no expanded wings. No expanded wings, no flight.
This process of radical change from cocoon to butterfly is called metamorphosis. It’s the same progression that turns a tadpole into an adult frog, and a maggot into an adult fly.
When Paul looked for a word that would best describe God’s purpose in maturing us from new believers into believers he’s renovating into the likeness of Jesus, he used the word metamorpho — metamorphosis.
That’s God ultimate plan for every believer — to transform (metamorphosis) us so we become like his Son, Jesus Christ. [See Romans 8.28-29 and 1 John 3.2). God could snap his fingers and change us into Christlike believers, but metamorphosis requires time and struggles.
Struggles like being around people who irritate and drive you crazy. Jerks are everywhere, and you can’t avoid them. Struggles like trials, hardships, suffering, troubles, difficulties, heartache, hurts, and pain.
Struggles like offenses. It’s impossible to go through life without being offended. Friends betray you. People talk about you behind your back. Individuals criticize you unfairly. Family members break your heart.
And we want God to deliver us from these struggles. To comfort and protect us. To ease our suffering. To deliver us from every tussle.
But struggles and hardships are necessary to the process of becoming like Jesus. If God shielded us from them, he would be like the guy who cut open the cocoon and forever prevented the butterfly from fulfilling its destiny to fly.
God never lets struggles or hardships go to waste. Each one provides an opportunity to respond like Jesus did… and become more like him as a result.
God is far more interested in fulfilling his purpose for you than he is in your comfort and ease. That’s why when you quit a job because of the dopes you work with and get a new job, you soon discover boneheads working beside you just like the ones you left.
They were and are God’s chosen method to move your transformation forward a step or two into the likeness of Jesus.
Your struggles and hardships are really opportunities to respond to them like Jesus would. The more you do what Jesus did when he faced opposition and encountered hardships, the more God will transform you into his likeness.
A.W. Tozer once said, “When I understand that everything happening to me is to make me more Christlike, it resolves a great deal of anxiety.”
We can endure anything if we know it has a purpose. If you know eating right will make you healthy and enable you to live longer, you’ll endure the hunger pangs and insistence from friends just a bite won’t hurt you.
God’s purpose in everything you face in life is to make you like Jesus. So, he deliberately sets up trials and difficult situations as opportunities to respond to them like Jesus would.
Your response in those situations either advances or stalls your progress toward Christlikeness. You’ll either become more like Jesus today by how you respond to offenses and trials, or you’ll become less like him. There is no neutral position.
What a difference it will make if you begin to view every struggle you encounter as an opportunity to break out of your cocoon and let God move you closer to the person, he’s destined you to become. A person who is increasingly becoming like Jesus.
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.
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