Inspiration

Last year, one of our priests at Mass told a story in his homily that really spoke to me. (Homily=sermon for my non-Catholic friends :) ) I told him at the time that I really felt touched by his homily that day. Here's the parapharsing of the story:

A man saw a caterpillar still in it's coccoon, struggling to break free. He saw that the caterpillar was fully developed into a butterfly but was seemingly having a lot of trouble coming out. The man took pity on the caterpillar and cut the coccoon away, expecting to see a beautiful butterfly fly away. Instead, the weak, colorless butterfly fluttered a little before dying. You see, the man didn't understand that in order to get the colors into it's wings and become a butterfly, it had to struggle against the coccoon first.

Sometimes, we cannot be what God wants us to be unless we go through the struggles. It's through the struggles, that we become the beautiful person God intends.

Needless to say, hearing that weeks before my PBM was comforting. Even now, as I agonize about whether I'll have another infection come up, it's comforting to know that maybe all of this serves a bigger purpose.