Struggle

 I was walking yesterday and noted the blackberry vines pushing their way through the brush and debris of fall and winter.  

There is no fruit in sight, of course, since it’s only spring.  

But the delicate green leaves show the promise of new growth and in my mind I could picture the plump, deep purple blackberries, and even imagine the smell of the juices on a hot, humid August day.  

I thought of my own life and how often I don’t yet see the fruit.  That I am more in the “wrestling through the undergrowth” stage.

I have read Enos many times and love the story of him taking his sincere questions to God and “wrestling” with them.  

Questions are good!  

He writes “And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul;”

He prays all day and night and the first answer he gets is that his sins are forgiven.

A precious truth.  His prayer was answered.  

But then it says he continued to pray “with many strugglings”.

Praying, and his testimony, wasn’t a one and done experience.

I thought of my blackberries and how even though there are seasons of fruit there are also seasons of dormancy, and then again of new growth.  

It’s okay to struggle.  

It’s okay to go through cycles.

Just remember that what takes us through to gain that unshaken faith that Enos had is to focus on the question he also asked.  

“Lord, how is it done?”

“Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen…wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee whole.”