God can transform our struggles

I've stopped asking God to take uncomfortable circumstances away from me. My prayer used to be that he would take away my fear, worry or whatever else I didn't want to be a part of my life so that I wouldn't be bothered by it any longer. I've realized that asking God to transform my struggles into whatever he wants them to be is infinitely more powerful than merely asking him to take "bad" feelings and circumstances away from me.

Asking God to transform these things into his goodness is so much more powerful because it is putting my faith in his abundant power and love for me, trusting that he wants goodness and freedom spilling over in my life even more than I do.

Asking for transformation is asking God to make good and beautiful out of bad and ugly, believing he is so capable of making strength from weakness and of letting light overcome dark. This is the God that I know, and what he is capable of.

Asking for transformation is me actively placing my trust in God and letting that trust deepen as I get to wonder at and be in awe of Him and how He transforms me. It allows me to be at peace with whatever is happening in my life because I know even the "bad" things are being turned into good, as they become ways for me to grow closer to God and see his faithfulness and love in my life.

Accepting all things that happen in life, all things that are a part of us, and then offering them to God to make beauty and love from frees us to delight in and dance with our Savior. It propels us from a passive role to an active one, as we are no longer a victim of our circumstances but one who chooses to say yes to God and His unfailing love as He works within us.

As we celebrate Easter, I realize this is the joy and truth of Jesus' death and resurrection. We are a people whose faith rests in the hope of transformation, in the promise and security of it. Jesus asked his Father in the Garden of Gethsemane to take His cup of suffering away from Him, and then allowed God to transform His torturous death into eternal life for each of us.

Our God became man and showed us that death and decay do not have the last word, that God has something so much better in mind for us and our sufferings: He has blessing upon blessing planned, if we'll let Him transform us the way He transformed His Son.

I pray that you have a blessed Easter, allowing our God to transform whatever sorrows, struggles and setbacks you may face into whatever it is that you really want -- love, joy, comfort, peace or asking God to surprise you with whatever He knows you need. This is our day of joy -- sadness, worry and sin have no place here. Happy Easter.

Mia Pohlman is a Perryville, Mo., native studying at Truman State University. She loves performing, God and the color purple -- not necessarily in that order.