“Please, Lord…I pray that I won’t encounter any problems…on my trip, at my job, with my friend, in my marriage,” or whatever other occurrence you’d like to insert.  I don’t think there are too many of us who haven’t prayed that particular prayer.  It boils down to, “Lord, just let everything in my life go smoothly.”  No bumps.  No potholes.  No obstacles.  On the surface, it sounds like a prayer that is in keeping with our best interest.  But it’s time for a spiritual audit.

Kindergarten was fun for me.  I remember a kind teacher (Thanks Joyce!), fun recesses, and comfortable naps on those blue and red cushion things.  (Why do we stop taking naps after Kindergarten?)  But with all the fun, came problems.  I don’t remember it specifically, but I know that one problem in particular existed right away.  After mastering our counting skills, our kind pedagogue posed a conundrum: “What if you take two apples and add two more?  How many will you have?”  Holy mathematics Batman!  How in the world will we ever figure this fruit fiasco out?  It was a situation that was sure to upset the apple cart.  (Don’t you love puns?)

Now, years later, believe it or not, I am actually able to calculate the 2 plus 2 query.  And, yes, I can do it correctly…every time!  And, how am I able to achieve this stunningly consistent success?  Because of a problem.  If I hadn’t had the problem, I’d never have come to the solution, and the solution has been important to me literally every day since K School.

Here’s the truth: problems help us grow.  Bumps in the road force us to stretch ourselves into people we never thought we could be.  Obstacles in our path redirect us so that we encounter things in our life that will be indispensible down the road.  Problems are not problems, they’re useful and necessary.

And yet, we continue to pray that God will “bless” us with a life that is problem free.  “Lord, just make all of them disappear!”  After all, my life will surely be better without problems!  My best interest is surely manifested in a life free of potholes!  “So, Lord, wave your hand and insulate me from difficulty…that’s what would be best!”

Really?  Hey, if you want to live a spiritual life where you never know the answer to the simplest of dilemmas, then by all means, keeping praying that way.  But if you do, don’t bother asking those of us who have mastered some of the basics to contribute to your infancy.  One thing that I know to be true is that God is not interested in our comfort, but in our character.  And among other things, God uses problems to produce in us a character that is worth having.  (See Romans 5:3-4.  No, don’t skip this.  You need to dust off the sword anyway. )

Kindergarten is a great year of someone’s life, and then the point is to move on.  No one ever gets a diploma for spending twelve more years there.  We advance through the grade levels, taking on more and more problems, mastering them so that we can navigate accurately through life.  And this is normal.  In fact, the opposite is abnormal.  Yet this abnormality is exactly what we ask for when we request no problems…and that is…a problem! 

“Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.  But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” -Hebrews 5:13-14