“Please can you explain to us what you mean by From glass to diamond?” I heard the fellowship leader ask my son on their Zoom call meeting yesterday evening.
I paused to hear his response.
“Glass means weakest faith, while diamond means strongest faith.” he said.
The teacher and the others still didn’t get it. For me, it was the last piece of the puzzle.
You see, he had been asking me about the strength of diamonds since we woke up. He’d asked if diamonds could be crushed, if they could be frozen then crushed, if they were stronger than metal. I kept answering to the best of my knowledge, wondering where the questions were leading to.
This month’s theme at my church, Daystar Chistian Centre, is “Faith for Healing”.
The concept is simple: Having a strong belief that we are healed brings it to pass. I had not listened in to the childrens’ version of this, until today, but the minute I heard my son’s contribution, it clicked.
***
I used to think strength was about being hard, unyielding, and impenetrable.
I imagined a fortress, walls so thick nothing could get in or out.
But that kind of strength is brittle.
It’s the strength of glass.
Beautiful, perhaps, and transparent, but one unexpected blow, one moment of intense pressure, and it shatters into a thousand pieces.
Sound familiar?
I’ve lived days feeling like that pane of glass.
A harsh word from a colleague or family, a forgotten deadline, a wave of bad news, and my carefully composed composure would crack a little more. My peace, my patience, my joy — all fragmented.
It’s a fragile way to live, constantly fearing the next impact.
But what if we weren’t meant to be glass? What if our potential is not just to withstand pressure, but to be transformed by it? What if we are meant to become diamonds?
Think about it.
Scientifically, glass and diamond share a common ingredient: carbon. But their atomic structure is utterly different.
Glass is disordered and random.
A diamond, however, is carbon that has been subjected to immense heat and pressure deep within the earth.
That pressure doesn’t shatter it; it forges the carbon atoms into an unbreakable, crystalline lattice — the hardest natural substance on earth.
The journey from glass to diamond isn’t about building thicker walls.
It’s about a fundamental internal restructuring. It’s about changing how we respond to the very things that used to break us.
So, how do we start this transformation? It requires intentional, daily action, in both our practical lives and our spiritual core.
The Daily Forge: Practical Actions for Strength
This is the “pressure” we must learn to welcome, not run from.
1. Embrace Discomfort, Don’t Avoid It.
Our instinct is to seek comfort. But growth happens just outside that bubble. Take the cold shower instead of the hot one. Have the difficult, honest conversation you’ve been putting off. Volunteer for the challenging project at work. Each time you choose the harder, right path over the easier one, you are applying productive pressure to your character, strengthening your resolve.
2. Cut Away the Superficial.
A diamond cutter doesn’t add material; they carefully remove everything that isn’t the diamond. Our lives are cluttered with what isn’t essential: endless scrolling, shallow entertainment, toxic relationships, and busywork that doesn’t fulfill us. Be ruthless in evaluating what serves your growth and what weakens you. Prune the distractions. This creates space for clarity and purpose to shine through.
3. Polish with Consistent Habits. A rough diamond is still a diamond, but its brilliance is hidden. Our “polish” comes from small, consistent habits. Make your bed. Read for 15 minutes a day. Take a walk daily. Practice gratitude. These seemingly minor actions are the daily polishing cloth that, over time, reveal the luster and clarity of a disciplined and intentional life.
The Unseen Foundation: Actions of Faith
This is the “heat” that fuels transformation.
- Submit to the pressure. Instead of asking, “Why me, God?” try asking, “What are you teaching me here?” That shift turns hardship into shaping.
- Anchor deeply. Glass topples easily, but a diamond is solid through and through. For me, prayer, scripture and fellowshipping with others aren’t rituals—they’re alignment. They steady me when everything else shakes.
- Reflect the light. Diamonds aren’t just strong; they shine. When pressure changes us, we stop reflecting fear and ego and start reflecting love, grace, and hope.
This journey isn’t a one-time breakthrough. It’s daily, and it isn’t always pretty. The heat will rise. The pressure will mount. There will be moments you think you’ll break.
But you won’t.
Trust the process. Welcome the pressure.
Step by step, atom by atom, you are becoming more resilient, more radiant. The fragility of glass is giving way to the strength of diamond.
“May I help him explain what he’s trying to say?” I finally asked the class.
“By all means,” the leader said.
So I shared the difference between glass and diamond—and how the pressures of life can move us from one to the other.