Page 2 of 2What value is a spring?
Many times I've asked that question, and people respond that a spring on a bed, a car, or a truck keeps you from bottoming out. That means that at any given time we are on the top rung of the spring, with all the previous events of life (ups and downs) buoying us forward (or upward) and keeping us from bottoming out.
That seems to be what the apostle Paul did with his spring, essentially using it as an encouragement to others. After letting his readers know that "we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God" (2 Cor. 1:3-7), he gets very personal.
"We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia," he says. "We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.… But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us" (2 Cor. 1:8-10).
God appears to encourage what I call the "recitation of the spring." Paul has done it here, and some of the songs of Israel do it too. Psalm 78 goes through almost every plague and the events of the exodus. And you can even see the up and down pattern at the end of the gospels as the disciples rolled back and forth from "encouraged" to "discouraged," trying to understand what had happened to Jesus and why.
What can we learn?
We can, of course, look at our own springs and reflect on what God has allowed us to come through; we may find that God has given us the strength and resilience to handle the weight of the future by giving us a backlog of reminders. And we can encourage others to look at life three dimensionally and to consider looking at their springs through the grace and overcoming power of our God.
The comedian Sid Caesar is credited with this practical insight: There are the "Nows," the "Was's," and the "Gonna be's." A "Now" is the most precious thing you can have because a "Now" goes by at the speed of light. Let's say you're having a beautiful "Now" that you want to hold on to forever. No matter how much you want to hold on to it, it's going to be a "Was." A lot of people get stuck in, and can't let go of, the "Was's." Those get heavy and start to decay, and turn into "Shoulda-Couldas." And those people never have time for the new "Nows."
If we keep "springing back" and looking at life as a spring rather than a stock market graph or roller coaster, each event can become a new "Now"—and there will be less "Shoulda-Couldas" and more new beginnings.
It may look like only a slight difference in perspective, but many can attest that it helps significantly when we're dealing with the "stuff of life." Instead of riding a roller coaster that can be terrifying and unsettling, we are ever rising on a spring that gets stronger and stronger with each rung that is added.
Dave DeLuca, a pastor, is the author of various articles and Bible studies, as well as the book How to Deal with the Ten Toughest Stress Situations.
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