Why I'm Thankful for this Pimple on my Face
“In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thess. 5:16).
I have a pimple, a big pimple, right between my two eyes. It’s white and obvious to anyone who will look at me today at church. I am 27 years old and married, but I still feel self-conscious. I don’t feel thankful for this pimple. I want to thank God for it, that’s why I’m writing this. Why should I be thankful for this pimple?
[tweetthis remove_twitter_handles="true" remove_hidden_hashtags="true"]I don’t feel thankful for this pimple. But God tells me to thank him in everything. Why should I thank him for this?[/tweetthis]
It gives me opportunity to be less self-conscious and worship God and edify others today at church.
It teaches me patience, because my normal practice is to pop it. I’m not going to this time, I will walk around church with my big zit and wait for it to go down itself, eventually. It reminds me that things are temporary and what should concern my heart and thoughts is not something so trivial and temporary like a 3-day (or 30 year!) zit on my face. Eternity is a long time.
This self-centered self-consciousness that I feel and am tempted to continue feeling is the battle most of my jr. high, high school, and college students feel almost everyday. I don’t want to forget how hard it is, apart from Christ and the gospel, to focus on God and others when you have a huge zit on your face and you think (I think wrongly) that everyone will be focusing on your pimple when in reality they might notice it, but none will focus on it as much as I have and so I just need to forget about myself and think about serving God and others today.
I should thank God because he has many purposes for this pimple and I don’t know the depths of his wisdom. He is wise and has a good reason for this pimple, even if I were not able to find one good reason to thank him, I would thank him that he’s good and wise in all things he providentially ordains, including this pimple between my eyes.
I was going to end with #4, but a fifth reason to thank God spurred by #4 is the fact that God may use these thoughts to encourage someone to center on God when all they can feel is self-conscious pressure that is over-blown and not as big a deal as they might feel (like how I am feeling right now).
I can now truly say, after typing and thinking through God’s purposes, “I thank God for this pimple.”
God is so good and kind! I love you Lord!
(this was originally posted on 8/19/07 on pjtibayan.wordpress.com)
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