Juggernaut Cars and Chariots of God

While walking by the Arkansas river today I was trying to come to terms with some minor frustrations and issues in my life. It often seems to me that the everyday "struggles" can be more challenging than the huge ones. During the big trials, it is easier to draw near to God. But what of the small things? Not the heart attacks of life, but the little pin pricks and hang nails that just don't seem to stop.

So I asked God, "How do You view these different trials in life? The big ones, the small ones? The ones that seem to matter and the ones that seem trivial? It seems like some you can use more easily to bring people into Your presence. But what of the small ones?"

And He said this: "They're all the same."

I was not expecting this! How could they be the same? Obviously there are some things in life which are earth-shattering and other things which are only minor inconveniences. How is it that He uses them the same? But then I pondered, and saw this:

It is not what God uses in your life, but the fact that you let Him use it, that matters. The event itself is insignificant. It could be as small as feeling frustration toward your coworker, or feeling the deep pangs of loss over a loved one. Both of these events can either separate you from the heart of God or draw you nearer.

Why do I try to quantify my struggles and trials? God does not view them as less or greater than any others. He views them in terms of, "Will she yield this to Me?" and "Will she allow Me to use this to form her more into My image?" Concerning our trials in life, Hannah Whitall Smith writes this:

"It all depends , not upon what these events are, but upon how we take them. If we lie down under them and let them roll over us and crush us, they become Juggernaut cars, but if we climb up into them, as into a car of victory, and make them carry us triumphantly onward and upward, they become the chariots of God."