Letting Ourselves Be Uncomfortable

St. Therese of Lisieux once said, “It is good to serve God in darkness and trial! We have only this life to live by faith.” Once we die, we will not need faith because we will see God face to face. When we undergo trials, it’s easy to feel frustrated and feel that our faith is shaken a little. However, these are simply tests to prepare us to live more perfectly the life that we’re called to, one of patience, love, and complete trust in God.

Whenever we are going through a period of darkness or some sort of trial, many of us, myself included, often want it to just be over with because we don’t like being uncomfortable. What we miss when we have this attitude are ample opportunities to practice virtue and cooperate with God’s grace in order to become closer to Him and be the person He wants us to be. God is preparing us to be comfortable in the next life by making us uncomfortable in this one. We see this in the life of Mary when she and Joseph lose the Child Jesus for three days and find Him in the temple. Jesus says to Mary, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” The Father’s business is not to make us comfortable and happy by our human standards. His business is to push us out of our comfort zones so that we will run to Him and lean on Him so that He can mold us into the people that He wants us to be. God was preparing Mary for the future trial She would undergo in watching Her Son be put to death and teaching Her to trust in Him even more so that She would be ready for her role in our salvation history.

It can be hard to imagine that certain trials are really for our own good, but that’s where our faith and trust comes in. Letting ourselves go through these trials and continuing to serve God during them is an opportunity to strengthen our faith and trust in Him and we must remind ourselves that this life is not the end goal, and that trials serve as the stepping stones to the virtues and graces we need to enter eternal life. Once we let ourselves be uncomfortable and go through the things that we need to with God by our side, we will be more equipped to be happy in the way that God wants us to be and to reach our ultimate goal, which is heaven.