One day, a man caught sight of a butterfly struggling to get out of its cocoon. Intrigued, he watched the struggle intently for quite a while. There was a small hole in the cocoon, but the butterfly was too large to make it through. It continued to struggle for what seemed like hours, utterly exhausted by the work. Out of a desire to help, the man finally went over and snipped open the cocoon so the butterfly could make its way out.
Freed from its struggle, the butterfly fell out of the cocoon and onto the ground. But its wings, instead of being large and beautiful, were shriveled and undeveloped. Unfortunately, it never was able to fly, and eventually the butterfly died.
Although he didn’t realize it at the time, the man, in his desire to help, had actually short-circuited the process that would have helped strengthen and prepare the butterfly to fly. Without the struggle of breaking through the cocoon, it was never able to become what it should have been.
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Two things stand out in this (possibly) familiar story. First, in trying to be helpful, we need to make sure our help doesn’t actually hurt those we’re trying to help. Sometimes, out of a desire to help, we can end up enabling in ways that don’t serve them well in the long-run. Or out of a desire to keep them from getting hurt, we don’t allow them to face the situations that could actually strengthen and mature them in ways nothing else would.
On the other hand, when going through tough times ourselves, it’s good to remember that times of struggle and difficulty can actually be a means for helping us become something more than we are today. There may be things we learn, and virtues we develop, that we would not have acquired any other way. And making it through these times of adversity is what actually prepares us for flight in the seasons of life yet to come.