My ability to see a cockroach out of the corner of my eye borders on a superpower.
I honed this skill after five months of watching these creatures crawl back into walls when I turned on the kitchen lights.
I worked among roaches, too.
Since my work commute included a jaunt into the spare bedroom, crawlers surrounded me all day.
Can someone say heebie-jeebie? I shudder to type the word roach now, but I will for two reasons. I want to face my phobia and tell you what I learned about tough times from these little fellas.
1. Hard times can infest any home. Just as roaches don’t care whether you live in a mansion or a shack, difficult times are no respecters of persons.
We all go through valleys and slumps in life and have moments we long to do over.
2. Only God gives lasting peace. I know my little roach story may not compare to real suffering, but I know the One who carries us through the large and small trials.
This peace Jesus gives—this Peace He is—doesn’t go away. It’s permanent hope for our life and can be applied to ANY circumstance.
Believe me, those five months living with roaches tested me. Our roachy apartment showed me how peace can calm an ocean of fear.
We always have the ability to tap into this peace through prayer and meditating on His truth.
3. Cockroaches love a dirty house, like hard times love a messy life. Ever met someone whose drama never ends? At some point their drama snowballed and started creating its own drama.
Sometimes God leads us through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and other times we pitch our tent there.
I wish I could tell you I’ve avoided self-inflicted difficult seasons, but that wouldn’t be entirely true. Here’s what I know. My life gets “messy” when my thoughts stray from God’s truth.
When I choose to let my mind feast on the negative, tough times are almost sure to follow.
4. Move on and don’t let any bugs (or excess drama) come along. Since roaches are natural hitchhikers, I consider it one of God’s greater miracles these bugs didn’t follow us when we moved into our house four years ago.
These are the things nightmares are made of. But I did take a ton of precaution to keep the little dudes from jumping into our boxes. (I bagged everything in plastic).
Hard times teach us to rely on God. Sometimes we need extra time and care from Him. If you’re in one of these seasons in life, please believe, God longs to meet with you and speak to you. He’s not against you. He’s always for you.
“Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love” (Romans 5:2-5).
This is an awesome post! Great analogy… 🙂
I loved this post! Thanks for sharing it.
Too distracted by all those cockroach photos to leave a meaningful comment!! But love the post in spite of them!
Another truth about cockroaches I learned while working in an old building in which they showed up occasionally. “Don’t step on it to kill it; let it go or kill it some other way.” They said this as the nasty guy was walking across my path. Reason: If it’s a female, her eggs attach to your shoe. You spread the eggs on your way, letting them have a place to come alive somewhere else. Who needs more cockroaches!? Great post. Great analogy.