We must work through our problems, not around them. Through is a process, around is avoidance. The path through is always harder and possibly longer. It requires patience, self-control, as well as accountability. Working through problems is ‘pain with a purpose.’ Working around problems is a sign of immaturity or possibly lacking necessary life experiences, which only creates, exponentially, more problems. Problems that may only show years later.
“Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them.” Orison Swett Marden
Our propensity to avoid dispute and tension robs us of learning the necessary skills for working out solutions of complex issues. We take this to an even higher level when we do not let our youngest generation, school children, work through their conflicts and tough times. We fight their battles for them thinking we are doing them a favor.
This behavior is captured in the ‘Parable of the Butterfly.’ The story of a man who watched for hours a butterfly struggling to free itself through the small opening from its chrysalis. The man feeling sorry that the butterfly was struggling so much, decided to help the butterfly, and slit open the chrysalis allowing the butterfly to emerge easily. The butterfly broke free, only to wilt and become completely motionless. It was withered and deformed with a tiny swollen body and shriveled wings. What the man in his kindness, goodwill and haste failed to understand was that the restrictive chrysalis and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the small opening, is nature’s way of forcing the fluid from the swollen body into its wings. The wings can then unfold and enable the butterfly to fly.
I am currently struggling through the onboarding with a new company. I am not as productive as I want to be while I go through the training and learning that are needed to emerge as a valuable member of the team. To skim over this process in an effort to be more engaged with the customer, will only leave me deficient in the long haul, prone to making mistakes, and ultimately take longer to be productive and a contributor. I must go through the process.
We are facing issues today with racial injustice that for decades, we have avoided. Quite frankly, I have been just as guilty as others of commenting, lamenting, and offering advice while skirting the heart of the issue, avoiding doing my part. Society cannot solve the issue without walking through it. Society walks through it when individuals like you and I walk through it. It appears to me, that this time, maybe enough of us are doing our part.
Hiking is through not around. Those that hike the Appalachian Trail (AT) from Georgia to Maine are called ‘thru hikers,’ Thru-hiking is on an established long-distance trail with continuous footsteps in one direction. An AT thru-hike takes five months on average, covering almost 2,200 miles. White blazes on the trail clearly show the way through. The expression ‘yellow blazing’ means walking, hitchhiking, or driving the highway (the yellow dashes down a highway). Yellow Blazers, in essence, are going around these sections of the trail and get a lot of grief from purist thru-hikers. I like to think that in Robert Frost’s poem the Road Less Travel, the road he took went through and not around – that would be why it was less traveled.
If we cannot go through, maybe due to limited resources, then we can still go up and over versus around. In western Maryland they carved through the top of a mountain for a new interstate as opposed to the old route that went around the mountain.
Our founding fathers grew tired of the oppression of British rule and decided that independence was their essential need. Thomas Paine wrote his epic pamphlet, The Crisis, just two days before George Washington’s attack on Trenton. His words, “THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value.”
In his book, “How to Survive a Shipwreck,” Jonathan Martin says, ‘Christianity is the religion of going through not around’. Jesus wants to move us from point A (sin) to point B (salvation). Jonah needed to go through a storm – and a whale – to follow God’s way and preach to the people of Nineveh. Paul writes of the hard times he had gone through in his service to God – floggings, stoning, hunger, and a shipwreck. The book of Acts is the movement of God’s Spirit through the disciples.
Isaiah 43:2 says, “When you pass through waters, I will be with you; through rivers, you shall not be swept away. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, nor will flames consume you.” Notice the usage of the word through. Not only are we not walking “around,” but we are also not walking “into” the waters, rivers, or fire, as though we will not come out. We are walking through them to the other side. There is strength on the other side.
Sometimes we need to confront head on what matters in our lives and not just skirt around. We must struggle to force our wings to unfold and fly. No yellow blazing allowed. “The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value.” Philippians 4:13, “I have the strength for everything through Him who empowers me.”