Stretched
“Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left…”- Isaiah 54:2-3a
When our three sons were younger and rambunctious (now they are just bigger with a side of rowdy), one of their favorite activities was using the trampoline. When our first trampoline succumbed (within a matter of months) to all the jumping, wrestling, and horseplay, it was time to upgrade to the maximum size and strength model we could find.
I cannot begin to describe how difficult it was to set-up this King Kong of trampolines. For the trampoline to work properly, there came a tremendous tension whenever we stretched the mat springs towards the frame and hooked them into place. What helped to encourage us was when we discovered that the tension became lesser with each spring making the labor easier as we went along.
Over the past year there has been a stretching of our lives in many dimensions and in ways we have never quite experienced. Adjusting to work from home; juggling online school for our kids; wearing masks; not being able to see people or go places; navigating the tumultuous landscape caused by politics, social issues, financial uncertainties, religious freedoms, and the like. The tension has been palpable and exhausting. This is definitely a season to draw from Paul’s overcoming testimony in 2 Corinthians 4:8-10, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
No matter the toil and toll being caused by the type of stretching you are presently going through, it will not leave you ruined or beyond repair. As we move through this season of life, the Holy Spirit wants us to see the stretching as a tension He can use to refine us and release new blessings our way. In Romans 8:18 Paul speaks to a finished product that is far superior to the stretching process, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
God can take everything stretching us today to accomplish something greater!