I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world. John 16:33 (WEB)
It has been just three weeks since Charlie Kirk was assassinated. Millions of Americans, including me, still feel the weight of this insane tragedy. For the first couple of days afterward, my faith was definitely not keeping up with the circumstances. A sense of hopelessness punctuated by extremes of anger and grief overwhelmed me.
In times like these, we Christians need to get a grip on ourselves (and each other) and simply remember just Who it is that’s running the show. God’s goal is never to perplex us, but to bring us peace. As Jesus told his disciples at the Last Supper:
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27 (NIV)
The Greek word rendered as “peace” in this verse is eirene. It means “rest and contentment.” We all enjoy that, right? I just got up from one of those naps with a kitty on my lap (those are the BEST!) right before I wrote this. I have feelings of contentment every morning when I am the first one up, the Bible is open, the coffee is poured, and no one, two-legged or four-legged, is bothering me.
But that isn’t what Jesus is talking about here. That is the peace that the world gives, by which I mean things in the world. It’s here one minute and gone the next. When the phone rings. Or the dog starts barking. Or your daughter sends you a text that says, “Charlie is gone.”
Jesus said, “MY peace I give you.” The peace of Jesus comes only through our relationship with God being made right by the sacrifice Jesus was about to make the very next day after He said this. And after that, He asked the Father to send us the Holy Spirit to give us the peace not only that God is bigger than whatever the world throws our way, but even that our circumstances are all actually a part of His plan.
The Purpose of Suffering
Adversity teaches us many lessons. Sometimes, God allows us to suffer as a course correction if we are going a way we should not be. Sometimes, He’s trying to show us that we are made of stronger stuff than we thought we were.
However, sometimes it’s the opposite of that. Sometimes the point of God allowing us to endure difficult seasons of life is to get us to STOP relying on our own strength and to rely on His instead.
On June 28 of this year my wife woke up with a backache. By the time we finished dinner that night, the pain was so excruciating that it took an hour for her to walk to the couch in the living room. The next morning, she couldn’t move at all. Four men carried her out of the house on a tarp to the ambulance. The emergency room did what emergency rooms do. They filled her full of enough opioids and anti-anxiety meds to get her out the door, into the car, and out of their hair. We had no idea what went wrong or what to do next.
We became keenly aware of the disastrous inadequacy of our health care system as we waited an entire MONTH for my wife to finally get scheduled for an MRI. However, it didn’t reveal the herniated disc and/or spinal stenosis that we expected. Instead, the images showed severe inflammation of the vertebra in that area due to an unknown infection. 12 hours later, she was admitted to the hospital, where she sat.
And sat.
And sat.
For four days.
Being pumped full of whatever antibiotic they could find that she wasn’t allergic to and losing what little strength and muscle tone she had left after being immobile at home for a month.
We continued IV antibiotics at home (I’m practically a freaking RN now). We blew up just about every routine and system we had built to make our lives more efficient to adjust to our new situation.
Today, two months later, she is S—L—O—W—L—Y recovering. She can walk with a walker, dress and bathe herself (Amish-style, because the shower is upstairs), fix herself a bowl of cereal, and even do the dishes if it’s a good day. We can see light at the end of the tunnel, though. Yesterday, she finally finished the antibiotics and had her PICC line removed. After some physical therapy, she should be relatively back to normal enough to resume teaching in the Spring semester.
Now I would love to be all spiritual and tell you that we held unswervingly to our faith through this trial and never doubted God for a moment. (I’ll wait a minute for Him to stop laughing.)
Yeah, it wasn’t like that at all.
There were things said for a few days under this roof that I will not repeat here. Not just because there might be children and Baptist women reading this, but because I am deeply ashamed at how much the whole situation shook me.
You see, my wife and I are alike in that we don’t wait well. When something goes wrong, we want it fixed, and we want it fixed NOW. We have things to do, places to go, people to see, food to eat. You know, PLANS! Trials and tribulations are an obstacle to those plans, so they need to be dealt with as quickly as possible.
But here’s the lesson. If we are more concerned with the disruption of our own plans than with following God’s plan for our lives, then we are not in proper submission. We know what we want, but God knows what’s best. More importantly, He knows what’s NEXT.
First-World Problems
Maybe it’s just part of being American, but I can get so bent out of shape over my first-world inconveniences. They are significant, but they are not a daily occurrence. We get so spoiled in this country that we forget troubles are a normal part of a normal life.
The world can be frustrating. The people in it can be REALLY frustrating. However, it is pointless to allow ourselves to be mastered by our frustration. There will be things in this world that we can not conquer, but Jesus has already conquered everything that ultimately matters.
Who´s Got Your Back?
I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13 NLT)
Everyone has up days and down days. Christians are no exception. When we are in a desert faith-wise, it is so important to have people around us that can build us back up. Also, we should remember the example that these people set for us. This way, when we’re back on the mountaintop, we can lift somebody else up who needs it.
Unfortunately, the tendency in these dry seasons of the soul (especially for introverts like me) is to pull away from people. We get used to our misery, and it seems that we would rather prolong it than to have someone tell us what we need to hear.
The problem with that is that when we pull away from people, we pull even further away from God. That’s when the old unhealthy habits start rearing their ugly heads again.
Scaled and Icy
One of my biggest fears since accepting Christ is that someone is going to encounter me during one of these troubled times and associate what they see in me with Christianity in general. What if I’m standing at the throne at the End of Days giving an account of my life, and I find out that someone missed out on the Kingdom because of something I said or did that turned him or her away?
But fears like this can actually accelerate the downward spiral. We might figure, “If I avoid people entirely, then I won’t run the risk of blowing my witness and staining the name of Jesus.” So, we pull even further away, not just from society, but even from the hand that feeds us.
Another manifestation of getting into a spiritual funk like this is that we stop reading the Bible. Everything we need to adjust our attitudes is right there. The Holy Spirit is only too willing to illuminate the verses that we need to hear, but again, we are too comfortable in our misery to put forth the effort of opening a book. I am so grateful to have a wife that will put scriptures in front of me when I am not going there myself.
Do you have someone in your life that cares enough about you to give you a lift like this? The Navy SEALS call this a “swim buddy.” If you don’t have one, then find one.
The best place that I have found for this type of community is in a small group (sometimes called “life groups” or “cell groups”) in a church. If you are not familiar with this concept, it’s a group usually of 8-15 people that meet regularly to go deeper together in their faith than they would get by only going to church on Sunday morning.
Set Apart to Come Together
What we need to remember is that God set us apart from the world to be WITH Him and His people, not to be hermits in a cabin in the mountains (not that there’s anything wrong with mountains!).
As I mentioned above, a normal life involves difficulties. For a Christian, those difficulties unfortunately include enduring people who mock the Name of Jesus, call us Nazis and racists without cause, or even shoot at us. Sometimes it seems that life would be easier if we didn’t have to put up with that, but we must remember that this life is not all there is. The next one is a lot longer.
God’s joy and peace are there for the having. You just have to want it. But sometimes, you need somebody to remind you that you want it.
So don’t ever be afraid to call for backup.
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