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It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? - Hebrews 12:7
I recently chatted with a guy who had taken up tennis later in life. At first, he loved it. Fresh air, good exercise, the simple joy of hitting the ball cleanly. But then he decided to take lessons. That is when things changed. His coach began correcting everything. Grip, stance, footwork, timing. What once felt natural now felt awkward and frustrating.
At one point he told me, “I think I was happier before I knew what I was doing wrong.”
There is something honest about that. Growth often feels worse before it feels better.
That is true not just in sports, but in our walk with God. We come to faith and there is joy, relief, a sense of new life. But as we continue, God begins to work on us more deeply. He starts pointing out attitudes, habits, and patterns that need to change. And if we are honest, that part can feel uncomfortable.
Yet that discomfort is not a sign that something is wrong. It is often a sign that something is very right.
Think about a parent teaching a child to ride a bike. There is a moment when the parent has to stop simply holding the seat and start correcting. “Keep your balance. Look ahead. Pedal steadily.” The child might get frustrated. They might even fall. In the moment, it does not feel like love. It feels like pressure.
But from the parent’s perspective, it is love in action. They are not trying to make things harder. They are trying to help their child grow.
In the same way, the shaping work of God in our lives is deeply personal. It is not random. It is not careless. It is intentional and rooted in care.
I went to coffee with someone recently who was going through a season where everything seemed to be going wrong at once. They couldn’t find work. They had no car. Relationships were falling apart. Even their sense of direction felt unclear. They kept asking, “Why is this happening?”
Over time, the question slowly shifted. Instead of asking why, they began asking what. “What is God teaching me here? What needs to change in me? What am I holding onto that I need to release?”
Hear me now; that shift did not remove the difficulty. But it did change how they experienced it. The same circumstances that once felt pointless began to feel purposeful.
That is often the turning point. Not when life suddenly gets easier, but when we begin to see that there is meaning in the difficulty.
Consider the verse above. There is an important reason why the author of Hebrews uses the language of children and fathers when discussing divine discipline. Girding every lesson we learn from God is His unfailing and abundant love. He WANTS us to win and to grow.
There is also something deeply reassuring about knowing that God cares enough to be involved at that level. Indifference would be easier in some ways. No correction, no pressure, no stretching. But also no growth, no depth, no transformation.
Most of us can look back on moments in life that shaped us, even if we would not have chosen them. A hard conversation that forced honesty. A failure that exposed pride. A season of waiting that built patience. At the time, those moments felt like interruptions. Later, we see they were forming something essential.
It is no different in our spiritual lives.
Learning to welcome that process does not mean we enjoy every hard moment. It means we trust that something good is being formed in us through it. It means we stay open instead of shutting down. Teachable instead of defensive.
Like that tennis player, it might feel easier to go back to what was comfortable. But comfort rarely leads to growth. The awkward, frustrating, corrective moments are the ones that lead somewhere better.
And like that child learning to ride a bike, there may be a few stumbles along the way. That does not mean the process is failing. It means it is working.
So instead of resisting every uncomfortable nudge or difficult season, consider leaning into it just a little more. Ask what might be forming in you. Stay open to the process.