I’m a writer. I come up with fake situations for a living. (At least I would do it for a living except I don’t get paid yet. But you know what I mean.) And when I do this writing, I have to make sure that my characters have character-development, right? And as a writer, there’s things that have to happen before something else happens.

I’ll use the Harry Potter series as an example.

There’s a character named Neville Longbottom who is one of Harry’s friends. Neville Longbottom is this weak lil boy, scared of anything and everything. Kinda dopey, but he’s likable. In the first book, he might seem ‘useless’ but we see in the last book, he cuts off the head of Nagini, Voldemort’s snake, thus destroying the last Horcrux.

But ultimately, before he can be the hero of the entire series (in my opinion) he must go through several trials. First-year Neville wouldn’t have been able to kill Nagini, right? But seventh-year Neville could, because he was older, stronger and now he was braver because of past experiences.

God does the same thing for us—he puts us through character development. We might be looking at the clock, saying, “When is ______ going to happen?” or even, “Why are you letting bad thing happen?”

From a writer’s perspective, characters need character development or else they don’t reach their full potential. We need to let them cry and hurt so that they are relatable, because humans cry and hurt.

And honestly, I don’t even have to make my characters go through this—half the time the story writes itself.

God lets us be exposed to real-world experiences—pain and hurt—so that in the end, we are a new person, refined by the fires and in a better spot to combat what comes next.

‘See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.’
Isaiah 48:10 NIV

This verse talks about how God has tested us with affliction—and remember the Sunday Encouragement post I wrote about affliction, just last week? Affliction sharpens us and crafts us so that we are built stronger than before. It’s a journey of physical and mental pain and healing.

As we close, I encourage you to look back on the times when you were afflicted or in pain—did you wonder, “Why is He letting this happen to me?”

Now, can you see why you were brought through that struggle? And if you can’t see it yet, I truly pray that someday you will! Because if not today or tomorrow, if not in several years, then someday when we are united with God in the life after our human death.

Thanks for reading, I hope this was encouraging!
~Willow