a butterfly emerging...

I was watching Lost the other day (because it's what I do lately) - a disc from the first season - and something in the show spoke to me. John Locke was explaining something to Charlie Pace in the show. Charlie was trying to detox from drugs and had given them to John to hold. John told Charlie that if he asked him for them 3 times that he would give them back to him, but only after the third time. I think it was after the second time Charlie asked him for the drugs when John imparted some words of wisdom to him. They were standing in the jungle and there was a coccoon. John pointed to it and pointed out the whole at the top of the coccoon. He explained that the moth inside was about to emerge and he was furiously working to find his way out of the cocoon. John continued that he could help the moth get free by ripping open the coccoon and set the insect free. The moth would fly for a while but it wouldn't be strong enough to make it. It would soon get weary and die. Charlie walks away without his drugs for the second time.

That illustration really resonated with me. Sometimes we wonder why we struggle so furiously and for so long on some things while our struggles with other things come and go quickly. We are a lot like moths - I like butterflies better because they're prettier (even though moths are supposedly stronger). We are stuck inside these coccoons that we have built for ourselves trying to work our way out of them. In much the same way as a marathon runner trains, our working our way out is also training. If a runner tried for a marathon too soon, they would be too weak to make it and would not be able to finish the race (that in itself is a spiritual analogy). If God simply ripped open the coccoon, or took us away from struggle before we were ready, we would not be ready to face the world. We would be faced with things that we would not be strong enough to take on. So as much as it pains him to see us wrestle and struggle and hurt, he knows it's for our own good. He knows we have to figure some things out on our own, and wrestle and fight through the mess of coccoon that's keeping us back from flying free. He knows that in time we will be a butterfly emerging and break through the barrier and we will fly. And we will be strong. And we will live.