Racing Forward

I have been thinking about how challenging the last several months have been a lot lately. As I considered what value those challenges had, I began to hear God whispering understanding into my ear regarding the purpose in all of the trials that we seem to have been through and I finally realized just how valuable they had been. I guess the best way I could describe it would be to think of it as if God had just reached down, picked me up off the highway I was traveling down and placed my car in the middle of a Nascar track. Yep, now let me see if I can open up this image a bit more.
Consider what it is like to travel down a typical highway (spiritual journey) in your vehicle (ministry). You turn the wheel and you change lanes. You accelerate to top speeds of around 70 mph. You brake and shift gears and make relatively sweeping adjustments to your driving style as you travel from place to place.
Now, imagine that you are in the same vehicle (ministry), but suddenly you find yourself traveling down a racetrack (still a spiritual journey) instead of the typical highway. Now you accelerate to top speeds of 180-190 mph. When you turn the steering wheel, even the slightest touch makes major changes. You now use your brakes much more sparingly and with a far lighter touch. You learn new skills like drafting and new techniques for placement on the track. In short, you are still driving a car, but the way you do it has changed dramatically. Your are now in the race, pressing forward toward the prize. You have to learn a new way of balancing things in order to properly compete. All the things you learned on the highway still apply but in vastly different ways than before.
When viewed from this perspective, all of the trials are not negatives, rather they are simply part of the process of learning the finesse of driving (operating in ministry) in a new way and at greater speeds, with more at stake. As the challenges of this new driving style are overcome with time, it becomes more and more comfortable. In addition you begin to realize that though it is challenging, the rewards are worth it.