Coco Calling No.317 - What Our Trials and Tribulations Say About Us

My owner spends a great many hours tending to his plants and growing lots of new crops every year. The most labour intensive are always the peas. He has to sow them indoors, or else the garden mice will eat up all the seed before it germinates. And so, he painstakingly sows 500 pea seeds into individual cells and grows them on until they are ready to be planted out. As this variety grows to more than 6’, he has to erect big frames with jute netting to keep the crop happy.

The final task is t0 erect some screening around the pea patch which keeps both the marauding garden chickens at bay, as well as any wild rabbits that happen to be hopping by. And this has all worked well for many years, and it hasn’t been unusual for my owner to harvest more than 20lbs of peas in a single year (which is great news for me because I love them!)

But sadly, there won’t be any peas this year. Everything was going so well; the pea plants looked really healthy, -and then one night, a small rabbit got in through the chicken defences, and went snip, snip, snip! Virtually every plant has bitten off at the base, and all of those hours of work were lost.

How do you think my owner reacted? Did he fume? Did he scream? Did he run around the lawn madly beating his chest and giving off cries of pure anguish? Well, no he didn’t. He might have when he was younger, but these days he’s a bit older and wiser. No, he’s decided to put up a totally rabbit-proof fence around each vegetable plot before he plants any future crops. After all, he’s developed the garden to be wildlife-friendly so it’s all a case of working out how best to co-exist with Nature.

And although his experience has been very disappointing, it’s taught him to be all the more grateful for the other crops which are doing well. He doesn’t rely on his pea crop for survival; he’s not starving; he’s not homeless; he isn’t like so many other poor humans around the world. And he still has what really matters, -his family and his faith. So, quite simply, he’s taken it on the chin and moved on. It’s taken him many years to learn this, but at least he got there in the end!

“We are always in the forge, or on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for (Henry Ward Beecher: [1813-1887]: American congregationalist clergyman and social reformer).

“Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.” 

(Charles Haddon Spurgeon: [1834-1892]: English Baptist preacher, still referred to today as ‘The Prince of Preachers’).

“Sorrows and trials are like the sand and grit that polish a stone.”

(G. V. Wigraw: [1805-1879]: English biblical scholar and theologian).

“Anger and bitterness are two noticeable signs of being focussed on self and not trusting God’s sovereignty in your life.”

(John C. Broger: [1913-2006]: American Christian missionary, author and radio producer).

“I never had a trial I wanted to have, but I never had a trial I wasn’t glad I had.”

(Jack Hyles: [1926-2001]: American independent fundamentalist Baptist pastor).

“Though the fig-tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour.”

(Habakkuk 3: 17-18).