Sometimes, it’s the small things that hurt. My salubsob story and how it reminded me of how God uses others to help us grow in character.
Salubsob. I tried to take out the three splinters by myself but I couldn’t. It took three officemates to successfully remove them, one removing the splinters, one holding the light, and the other pressing onto my hand (an attempt so I don’t feel whatever the first person was doing)… and maybe a fourth or fifth officemate praying for me because they were distracted from work of my noise.
Tools of the trade were tweezers (we had that because #kilayislife) and safety pin, both disinfected with alcohol. Because I’m afraid of needles and it was taking me forever to take out those nasty tiny splinters by myself, I wondered what would happen if we just let them be. They would probably come out on their own after a couple of days or weeks, but there is also a possibility of infection. I didn’t want to take that risk so I allowed my officemate (and friend, a.k.a. TRUST is a big factor here!) to scratch and poke and push and pull and do whatever she thought was best to take the splinters out. After minutes of this operation, the three splinters were removed and it felt like… FREEDOOOOOOOM!!!
This reminded me of how, a good number of times, character issues are surfaced by God that I and people around me can see what needs to be dealt with. And how, a good number of times, I try to remove them on my own. I reckon, whenever there is a transition of seasons, a lot of exposing and removal happens. It’s very uncomfortable, but if we allow God to change us (and He uses people to help us), freedom also happens.
Dear brothers and sisters,
if another believer is overcome by some sin,
you who are godly should gently and
humbly help that person back onto the right path.
And be careful not to fall into
the same temptation yourself.
Galatians 6:1 NLT
