Thistles and Thorns

I was talking to my dad last week and he brought up the topic of thorns in the Christian life, that sometimes what we call our “thorns” are actually necessary to our growth. 

This made me think. He’s not wrong.

Nature & Thorns

I love following mustang pages on Facebook. The pictures of the horses in the wild are so beautiful. But one question that so many people have is how do these horses get hoof care. In domestic life, the horse needs a farrier on a regular basis to keep their feet healthy, trimmed, free of infection. But the horses in the wild never receive this care and they get along just fine. Why is this? 

Those who know the wildies point out that these horses run over rough, rocky terrain all day. Ranchers take rocks out of their fields – for good reason, but in the wild there are no ranchers taking rocks out of their way. Their pastures are not soft grasslands. They don’t stand in stalls for much of each day. They don’t have graded and sandy arenas to exercise in. Their hooves are worn down by the obstacles they encounter in their daily travels. Because of this, horses in the wild have big thick hooves that stand up to the rough terrain. 

As another example, baby birds must fight their way through the egg shell – they’re still attached to the inside of the shell and trying to help them through the process can actually make them bleed to death. There is no safe way to make this easier for them. The long arduous struggle is necessary for their health. 

Thorns Produce Growth

Victories are nice, but I think if you look back on your life, you’ll see that you’ve experienced the most growth through the struggles, the trials, the “thorny” moments. 

As a writer, the most help I’ve found has come through the critiques of my writing, not the praise. The praise is nice, it might even motivate me to continue, but the most constructive help has come in the form of critical reviews. 

Growing physically stronger requires physical exercise. Growing spiritually stronger requires spiritual exercise.

Life’s Thorny Moments

Two years ago, I started a job at my local grocery store – in the deli. This job was given to me despite the fact that I had no experience in grocery, no experience even in retail. It was a unique combination of the right time/right place, and knowing the right people. It was God giving me a job, honestly. Still, at my interview, the HR lady looked at me and asked if I was sure I wanted to start in the deli. Little did I know, her question was the right one. I had no idea what I was getting my 50-year-old self into. 

Deli, closing shift in particular, is not easy. It is hard on a person who is in shape, much less on someone who has always been a stay-at-home mom and caregiver. The first few weeks I’d come home and collapse, absolutely sure I was going to die of exhaustion and pain. I never quite hit my quitting line though, so I kept going back. 

Now, two years later, I don’t feel it like I did back then. I can come home and have a normal evening after work. I have grown physically to be more capable than I was two years ago, but it only happened through pain and struggle. 

I’m stronger now than I was before. 

Spiritual Strength

Through the years 2019 and 2020 our family had some significant struggles with faith and keeping hold of God through spiritual trials, things I’ve already shared here. But now I’m stronger spiritually because of those thorny moments with God. I’m more capable of turning to God first before I panic and assume there’s no way out of this next trial.

Think about it, if you are going to be stronger at trusting God for your needs, you’ll have to go through moments when your cupboards are bare first. Spiritual muscles need exercise in order to grow. And those thorny moments are part of that exercise routine. 

Unlovable people will teach you to love better. 

Dealing with a difficult person in your family can teach you patience, longsuffering, gentleness. Periods of waiting for what you’re hoping for will teach you patience. 

Criticisms, even if spoken with a wrong spirit, can point out something you need to work on in yourself.

Everything negative you experience can teach you something positive. 

Don’t Miss This

Don’t misunderstand me here, I’m not claiming we ought to look for conflict. The Bible does also say we ought to try to live peaceably with all men, as much as it is possible for us. But when a trial comes unbidden, when conflict arises around us, when our life situations require a choice of taking the spiritual route versus the carnal route – these are things you can choose to see as spiritual exercise, something God can use to bring spiritual strength into your life.

Our only question now is whether or not you will let these thorny moments teach you something positive or will you let it make you angry and bitter.

3 Scriptures For When You Have Thorny Moments in Your Life

For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

1 Timothy 4:8

Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

2 Timothy 2:3

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:1-2

Join the Conversation

What have you experienced as thorns in the past that you can now see made you stronger in your faith? 

Can you pinpoint thorny moments in your life that taught you a valuable lesson or helped you gain spiritual muscle?

Clinging to Jesus

Whether it’s your head, your back, your joints, or something else, when we feel miserable, we can let that awful feeling consume us. But God doesn’t give us more than we can handle with Him in our hearts. Read more in Clinging to Jesus.