Are we predestined to feel frustrated?

I seldom chat on FB. But yesterday, a friend from Church and I were chatting about the frustration in going through the cycles of applying for jobs attending interviews and going through this almost endlessly repeating loop. I commented, “God sometimes predestines us to be frustrated so that through the frustration when we look at Him, we see a different aspect of Him and ‘cherish’ Him for who He is”. I was trying to think of a good analogy to explain this… then I remember something. When I was a kid, I used to cry sometimes and that was when I would long for my mother’s countenance. When I was a kid, probably 7 years old, one afternoon, I was crying at school. My mother to my surprise came to school and the moment I saw her all my fears disappeared and tears were gone. My mother is many things to me but I specially cherish memories of my finding rest in my mother’s embrace only because there was an opportunity for me to get frustrated and I was willing to look up to her countenance for comfort.

Likewise, life gives us opportunities, through the frustrations, to look up at God and ‘cherish’ a unique comforting aspect of that relationship. God is glorified when we find Him the utmost comfort. So I think we are predestined to be frustrated so that we’ll have an opportunity to experience the comforting nature of the Blessed One. Our every day frustrations are not pointless irritations of an otherwise tolerable life, they are rather pointers to a need for a cherished countenance in a special Relationship. These enervating frustrations find its lasting meaning in that ‘cherished’ Relationship.

When we go through frustrating experiences, the challenge is to ‘truly’ look up at Him. We are perhaps more like Peter, we start looking up at Him, but soon are looking at the perilous waves come at us.  We get lost in our frustrations until we are pulled up and embraced into His bosom. Then looking back we have a greater appreciation for seeing Him in a different light and love Him all the more. But, we should be better than that. We should strive to be viscerally conscious of Him so that even as we are going through the frustrations,  we can ‘look up’ and delight and rest in His loving Countenance instead of having to ‘look back’ after the frustrations are over and retrospectively appreciate Him.

Blessed are the frustrated for if they look upwards, they can see God.