Technicolor Womanنموونە

Pearls of Pressure

There is not a human on the planet who doesn’t feel pressure, stress, or even agitation.

Take account of your life, and there is something agitating you—and each one of us.

There is some kind of pressure, whether it's relational demand or dysfunction, financial lack or stewardship, emotional loneliness or heartache, physical pain or sickness.

Pressure is a part of life. There can be good stressors, including pressure, such as success, leading people, creative processes, and the like.

Most of us want to run from the tension and, honestly, just have things be easier.

One day, while we were in the car, my oldest son was going on and on about math. This isn’t a new conversation; it’s one of many on how he doesn’t like it and how it feels harder for him than anyone else.

I kept listening to him state how hard it is, how he doesn’t like fractions, and wishes he didn’t have to do it at all.

He said, “I will feel better when I don’t have to do math anymore; my life will be better.”

In that moment, while driving, I started laughing because the realization of “math“ struck me in a new way. I told him, “Jude, there will always be an aggravating ‘math’ in your life you don’t want to do. Instead of trying to escape, just know it is normal for it to be hard.”

He looked at me with wide eyes and said, “Really? There are things that feel like math for your whole life?”

I had just done an intense workout class that day. I was disheveled and still sweaty when I looked at him and asked him, “Do you think I always want to work out?”

He looked at me, not knowing the answer.

I said, “Some days I do; some days I don’t. But I want to be strong, so I do it anyway—whether I feel like it or not. The tension builds strength.”

We went on to talk about the many different jobs I didn’t want to do earlier in life or things that were hard and aggravating but then produced beautiful things.

I told him he will have jobs and chores and so many things that feel like math, and that it was normal.

Laundry feels like my math; it never ends in this season of life.

He really got it! He understood that something being hard, aggravating, agitating, and pressure-filled was . . . well . . . normal.

It is like a pearl.

Inside a very normal-looking oyster or mollusk that doesn’t look like much is happening on the inside, a tiny organism or sand comes in and causes a disruption. The oyster or mollusk starts to secrete the same thing that its shell is made of to protect itself from the disruptor, and the irritation starts the formation of a valuable pearl.

“At root, a pearl is a ‘disturbance’ a beauty caused by something that isn’t supposed to be there, about which something needs to be done. It is the interruption of equilibrium that creates beauty. Beauty is a response to provocation, to intrusion. . . . The pearl’s beauty is made as a result of insult.” Julia Cameron

I believe every irritation and pressure can be used to bring out the fullness and beauty that Jesus wants to develop in us.

“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way” (James 1:2-4, MSG).

I applaud how it says, “Don’t get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.”

If you want pearls, embrace the pressure. Ask the Lord to use the pressure to remove impurities and watch as beauty comes forth, fashioned inside of you.

The disturbance and the thing that “isn’t supposed to be there” in your life could be the perfect irritant for a pearl to grow.

There are things I have wrestled with for years. I found them to be so irritating and aggravating in my life, but after years, I started to see the beauty and fullness they were developing in me. They were the perfect irritants to create something new inside of me. God truly blesses your patient endurance of these hard irritants of testing.

“God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12, NLT).

One time, I was out when my husband was doing a show overseas, and I was getting to know a woman who was on that particular tour. She was asking about my husband’s illness at the time. He was at the height of sickness with a chronic illness. He was in a lot of agony.

I shared with her where we were at and even shared how I was healed of a disease. I explained that we were in that “in-between time” of walking it all out.

She looked at me and point-blank said, “Wow. I guess God just really loves me because I haven’t ever had to deal with anything like that or in my family.”

I’m sure my face showed my shock! I literally laughed because it was so ridiculous to believe that, let alone say it.

This is someone who obviously hasn’t experienced suffering. You could tell due to the lack of compassion, but what shocked me more was that she didn’t know the heart of Jesus or the pearls of pressure.

I haven’t thought of that story since that time—until I started writing this.

I want to make it clear that God doesn’t cause or like sickness or suffering, but He allows it.

I think of the life of Job. Every horrible thing Job had to walk through had to pass the desk of God and be approved. The enemy can’t just have his way; he is under the authority of God.

But let me tell you a mystery: when God allows suffering to come, it is always for your good. It is always for more fruit of the Spirit to abound. It is to conquer your fears. It is for the pearls.

When God tests us, it is for us to pass the test and be upgraded.

Every pressure produces.

After Job’s testing, he was given everything back TIMES SEVEN.

I used to get jealous of other people who seemingly didn’t have suffering like I had experienced. I know . . . what a weird thing to be jealous of, right?

Suffering has a way of making you very sober. The only way to describe it is that I had felt like I was the only sober person at a party with a bunch of drunk people. Not fun.

As time and life has unfolded, however, I now weep with gratitude for every pressure, every trial, and every difficult thing. I have treasures, and they are real, true, and lasting. After the trials comes JOY, and so now I’m drunk on the wine of the Spirit that doesn’t run out.

God has a way of allowing the precise pressure to come our way so that a precise pearl can be developed. It is glorious.

I would never trade a pearl for temporary satisfaction. I now don’t seek to sidestep hardships because I could miss another pearl.

Everyone has pressure and pain, but it is a choice to enter into refinement.

“Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner” (1 Peter 4:12-13, MSG).

The difficulties are used as a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.

Think of diamonds deep in the earth. They start out as carbon, but they enter extreme conditions that lead to their transformation—including high heat, intense pressures, and fast cooling. As a result, a valuable gem is formed: diamonds. They’re beautiful, pure, sparkling, and treasured.

If you skip the refining process, then you miss out on the shine.

Like diamonds, pearls are valuable, but not everyone or every environment will see or honor them.

Pearls come at a great price and from intense pressure, resulting in making them treasures.

I think back to that conversation on suffering that I had with the woman. I am sure she has gone through refinement and is a different person now, Lord willing. However, she was someone who didn’t understand pearls—someone who, at that point in her life, didn’t understand the refinement process.

“‘Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you’” (Matthew 7:6, NLT).

We are hidden in Him like the developing pearl within an oyster. The irritants and disruptions come, but, oh, what is being formed in us is far greater than anything else. It is the pearl of great price.

“For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory” (Colossians 3:3-4, NLT).

“‘The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field. Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!’” (Matthew 13:44-46, NLT),

This is the treasure. It is Him. This is costly.

My heart and prayer for you today is that you take a deep breath and realize pressure isn’t abnormal.

I pray like in Job’s life everything robbed, harmed, and that has died in your life would come back seven times than before.

I pray you sell it all for the pearl of great price.

I pray for your endurance in whatever your trial and test is—that you will be victorious and steadfast.

I pray you see the disturbance and the irritation as a specific opportunity for refinement and for a valuable pearl to be made.

Let us grow beautiful pearls from pressure.