By Maria Sermersheim
Meditatione Ignis
When I was in France this summer, trying to learn the language with my friend Katherine, we often found ourselves frustrated. After feeling as though we had made so much progress, we would experience some instances of failed communication which made us feel as though we were actually no farther than where we had begun.
Katherine encouraged me by sharing an image that applies to all sorts of patterns in life: learning is like ascending a spiral tower with windows on only one side. You climb a distance, you are out of breath for all the effort you’ve exerted, and then you’re faced with the same landscape you saw before. It feels like you’ve made no progress at all, and you want to throw your hands up because you’re back in the same place you started. But the difference is real, even when you can’t see it — you have climbed a great distance, you have made great progress, you have learned more. It’s just hard to tell when you’re looking out the same side of the tower.
Rather than being discouraged by patterns of failure or a sense of stagnation, we should hold fast to the confidence that nothing is wasted. The Lord works all things to the good for those who love him, and every hill, valley or desert of life that we traverse on our way to God will pay dividends we may not yet understand. Proceeding in the confidence that nothing is wasted does not mean discarding the clear-sightedness that not everything is as it should be; often, the things in life that are not wasted could be much better than they are. We would rather experience better things that are not wasted. But in such times, we must remember the words of James 1:2-4, “Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Our perseverance, no matter how dire the circumstance, will pay off, because the Lord promises in the Psalms that, “Those who are sowing in tears will sing when they reap” (Psalm 126:5).
In the journey to love God above all else, nothing is wasted. Even when given the clarity that circumstances should be better than they are, nothing is wasted. We must persevere with confidence in the goodness of God, because as long as we keep taking steps forward — even if they could be better constructed or cleaned, even if we are crawling slowly, even if we find ourselves frustratedly looking out the window at the same landscape we saw before — we will continue ascending the tower to a purer love.