True Nature Revealed

Your true nature is most often revealed when you're found in a hard place!

Every autumn I am drawn to the beauty of leaves as they transition from summer's green to various colors and mixtures of red, purple, orange and yellow.

The green is necessary in spring and summer for making food. These green cells contain chlorophyll which absorb energy from the sun that transforms carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates, such as sugars and starch. Along with the green pigment are yellow to orange pigments too, but most of the year these colors are masked by great amounts of green coloring.

But in the fall, because of changes in the length of daylight and changes in temperature, the leaves stop their food-making process. The chlorophyll breaks down, the green color disappears, and the yellow to orange colors become visible and give the leaves part of their fall splendor.

The fall season is a picture of our lives as those warm times of plenty and productivity are replaced by more difficult, cold, hard circumstances and situations. When we suffer, it is then that the mask comes off and our true colors are revealed.

Charles Swindoll wrote:

Suffering is essential, not only because it softens our spirits, making us sensitive to the voice of God, but also because it reveals to us the true nature of ourselves. It shows us the truth about ourselves. Although this journey along the avenue of affliction is unpleasant and unappealing, it is both inevitable and essential. 

The Apostle Paul said it this way:

We glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:3-5)

Life can be hard, but in those times -- with the help of God's Spirit -- we can beam for Him in a colorful display of glory through those sufferings as they build perseverance, character and hope in our lives.