suffering

hope, pain, rest, season, Oh Lord Help Us, Christian, women, mentor, ministry

Season: Learning to Rest in Times of Pain and Suffering

Devotionals, Stay SaneDecember 10, 2018January 13, 2019

There are many different times in life. During a season of suffering, it is important to remember that it is okay to not be okay, but we are called to rest in Jesus.

Through the past year, I have had some of my lowest lows and some of my highest highs. I am currently, by the grace of God, in a season where everything seems to be going well. I am feeling more confident and am having a lot of good days. Because of that sometimes I forget that I am allowed to have bad days. I focus a lot on what “should be” instead of facing what is. We all go through different seasons of life but in every season we must hold tight to our Savior.

Having it all Together

Sometimes, as Christians, we tend to think that we have to have it all together. We are constantly bombarded with phrases that lead us to believe that we are not allowed to have bad days or to feel upset for a time. When we confide in people they usually respond with “just have faith” or “you just need to pick yourself up”.

While this is all true, we also need to realize that there will be seasons of pain and times where we don’t feel okay. And the truth of the matter is that it’s okay to not be okay. The pain will fade and God will come through for us and bring relief.

After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, the one who called you into his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will himself restore, empower, strengthen, and establish you.

1 Peter 5:10, CEB

A Season for Everything

There truly is a season for everything, and that includes seasons of not ‘okay’. Scripture clearly states that there is a time for crying and laughing and a time for mourning and dancing. Life happens in seasons. Sometimes that season is one of pain. We are allowed to feel pain and to not be “on” all of the time. At times we must rest in our suffering and our pain.

There’s a season for everything and a time for every matter under the heavens:

a time for giving birth and a time for dying, a time for planting and a time for uprooting what was planted, a time for killing and a time for healing, a time for tearing down and a time for building up, a time for crying and a time for laughing, a time for mourning and a time for dancing, a time for throwing stones and a time for gathering stones, a time for embracing and a time for avoiding embraces, a time for searching and a time for losing a time for keeping and a time for throwing away, a time for tearing and a time for repairing, a time for keeping silent and a time for speaking, a time for loving and a time for hating, a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, CEB

The Bible is clear that there are times where we will not be ok. The difference comes when we learn to give it to Jesus and learn to be ok again. We are not called to live a life without suffering but to give our suffering to our great God.

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

Romans 5:3-5, NLT

We can rejoice when we run into problems and trials. Some other versions say that we can rejoice in suffering. When we generally think of trials or suffering the word rejoice does not come to mind. But, it is clear that we all go through suffering and that it happens for a reason…

That reason is hope. Suffering will also ultimately develop hope. A hope that will never let us down. A hope that can only come when we give everything over to Jesus. Jesus died so that we do not suffer alone.

He took the punishment for our sin. He suffered so that we can trust in Him. Jesus knows first hand what it is like to not be ok. We have a confidant, a supporter through all of life’s trials. This is the hope we need in order to see the good in our suffering. To learn to rest in it.

Suffering will ultimately develop a hope that will never let us down. A hope that can only come when we give everything over to Jesus. He died so we do not suffer alone. Click To Tweet

Suffering with Each Other

When others are suffering, we are called to stand with them. We need to help them. We need to be a safe place for people to be able to talk about what they are going through. It is important that we give people permission to not be okay. There are times when people are looking for help solving a problem and times when they just need someone to listen to them. As believers, we are called to do these things.

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Galatians 6:2, NIV

Carry each other’s burdens. This is what scripture implores us to do. Part of loving one another is carrying each other’s burdens. When we are in times of pain and suffering, having someone carry the burden with you can change everything.

God did not create us to go through life by ourselves. When we are in times of turmoil it is important to seek Godly counsel and support. When we are the ones giving the support, we must do so in a way that is helpful, loving, and honest.

Joy Comes in the Morning

It is truly okay to not be okay for a season. We all have days or weeks or even months of not being okay. The difference comes when we give our pain over to God and learn to rest in Him. We may have bad days, but we can have confidence that we will be okay again… the sun will rise.

For his anger lasts only a brief moment, and his good favor restores one’s life. One may experience sorrow during the night, but joy arrives in the morning.

Psalm 30:5, NET

constant, unchanging, hope, Oh Lord Help Us, women, Christian, ministry

Constant: Hopeful in the Waiting Because Jesus is Unchanging

Devotionals, Stay SaneJune 11, 2018September 8, 2019

Hope is challenging when our lives are full of waiting. Jesus is our hope and deliverer even when nothing may ever change. He is our constant.

My friend had a broken heart. I’m done she wrote. Done praying, hoping, waiting. What kind of father allows his children to suffer and hurt when he has the power to change and heal hearts? He hides behind this idea that we are to learn lessons and become stronger. It’s cruel and I want no part of it.

As I read my friend’s words, I knew I too had felt these very thoughts and more as I suffered through long periods of waiting. What is a believer to do in the midst of extreme despair? As believers our only answer is hope.

He is Our Hope

The weight of situations have left me feeling broken, alone, vulnerable, and angry. While listening to preachers talk about peace and comfort and better times, I have rarely connected better times with being in God’s presence. I know I have attributed better times with better circumstances; the problem would be resolved and the weight would fall off. Yet, Scripture is full of those who saw long times of waiting. Moses in the desert – not one time but twice, Joseph in prison, and David in hiding. And us his church waiting for his return. If I am honest, I do not want to be one of the waiting. I want to be one of the delivered.

How can I find hope and even believe there is anything to hope for in the face of so much pain? In the face of impossible situations and ones that may not change?

He is Our Deliverer

Hebrews 11, while it speaks of so many who were faithful and saw victory, also talks about suffering, mocking, flogging, sawn in two, stoned, killed by the sword. Destitute, afflicted, mistreated- of whom the world was unworthy. While many today want to make Jesus into some wise teacher, He is and was so much more.

He is the great deliverer. For some, that will be here on earth. They will see healing and change. But, many may never see deliverance until heaven. Regardless of when the hope that we long for is fulfilled, we can all stand sure of one thing- His presence. He has promised us His presence. Jesus said he was sending us a comforter. What does that mean but that we would require comfort? This world has trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world.

Regardless of when the hope that we long for is fulfilled, we can all stand sure of one thing- His presence. Click To Tweet

He is Our Constant

I can see the weight of worry and despair fall off because He is my peace, who has broken down every wall. My problem will not go away. Some of my worries may never get better or even change until I walk the gates of heaven. But, He is constant. I can trust him with my agony knowing that He too, understands what it is like to suffer. I can lay my despair at the feet of Jesus and know if not now, then one day all will be redeemed. All will be made new. All will be as He intended.

Jesus too, suffered knowing that the only relief would be the cross. I can take comfort that in whatever I face He, who knew no sin, suffered in my place so that I will not face eternity with no hope. This is a different kind of hope than the one who does not know Jesus, our great high priest who, though was tempted, was without sin. I will forget this truth often and I hope that I can reach out to those who will gently remind me of what is good and true. I can pray and take time to train my heart to remember and meditate on His constancy.

Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Hebrews 12:3, NIV

eberhard grossgasteiger

turmoil, safety, Oh Lord Help Us, ministry, women, Christian, encouragement

Unavoidable: Making Peace with the Impact of Turmoil

Devotionals, Stay SaneMarch 29, 2018September 8, 2019

Brace for impact! Turmoil in life is unavoidable, and there is no sense of control. Do we trust God with our lives? What about the lives of our children?

Last week, I had a lengthy conversation with my sister-in-law. She told me, “You have a whole heckuva lot going on in your life right now. I’m not gonna sugar coat it for ya.” Laughing, I asked her if I could quote her on that. I tend to downplay stressors in my life. Someone always has it worse. Searing loss has not ripped through our family. Yet things simmering beneath the surface are draining. They bring me to my knees, but I’m not going back often enough.

A Dream…

My husband, Sean, awakened me from a nightmare a few mornings back…

In the pre-dawn hours, I was driving in the hills of West Virginia en route to Louisville. My kids were with me; two in the back and one riding shotgun. Charging up a steep grade, we passed several cars pulled onto the shoulder that were having mechanical difficulties.

I asked my daughter to check the weather to see what we were going to be running into. As I neared a large, dark colored truck in front of me I saw my passenger side headlight was out in the reflection. I felt frustrated because I had just been through the safety inspection. In the distance a siren was blaring, getting steadily louder as we closed in on its position. The sound was coming from a white Honda Civic which was driving in reverse on the side of the road. It was alerting oncoming traffic of a wreck. Just past the Civic there were multiple cars moved off the main road that had clearly been in a major pile up.

My daughter mentioned something about possible icy conditions ahead. The sun had begun to illuminate the mountains’ dark shadows. I was behind the wheel but I could also see what was happening from the outside. An invisible force stretched across the interstate catching the front of my car. It slowed the car, extending like a sling shot. The tail end began to lift off the ground. My breaks were no longer of any use as we went airborne across the median. We made contact with the ascending terrain only once, spinning us like a fast ball toward the stone wall of a mountain. I groaned in terror as we hurled over the oncoming traffic, suspended in air and closing fast to impact. Bracing myself I thought O God; I don’t want my kids to go like this.

I could hear my muffled moan like someone had wired my mouth shut. Reality gripped as Sean shook me awake. All was quiet.

A Promise…

Unable to fall back to sleep, I went downstairs to write. Sitting down, I smiled. I knew what my dream meant. I was Louisville bound. It’s my hometown. That’s where my mom and dad are. They represent comfort, rest, security. The cars and wrecks are the heartache and hardships in the people around me. My busted headlight stands for unrest in my own life. The invisible force could signify not being able to ignore my own turmoil any longer. Propelling through the air denotes I am 100% out of control. Bracing for impact is feeling that what is happening is unavoidable. I can make peace with that; my future is secure.

Crying out to God for my children was telling. I want to shield them from the kind of agony that could end them. I feel responsible for not protecting them from hurt. Yet I know from experience, “there is no growth without pain, no integrity without self-denial,” (Brennan Manning). I don’t want to rob my children of learning to trust God’s character for themselves. Do I trust God with the lives of those I love most? My answer must be yes. Alternatively, if it is no, I have resigned to simply existing. God loves and cares for my family more than I can conceive.

Homera Homer-Dixon said “freedom from suffering leads to uselessness.” There are some days when the onslaught of pruning feels unbearable. But God will never leave us or forsake us.

I cry to God Most High, to God who accomplishes all things for me.

Psalm 57:2, NASB

There are some days when the onslaught of pruning feels unbearable. But God will never leave us or forsake us. Click To Tweet

Pain: Cast Aside Blame and See the Purpose of Suffering and Sacrifice

Devotionals, Stay SaneMarch 11, 2018June 27, 2019

Life is full of pain, leaving us wanting to blame something or someone for our suffering. Can there be purpose behind our struggles and sacrifices?

If God were good, He would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty, He would be able to do what He wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both. This is the problem of pain, in its simplest form.

C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Eleven years ago last fall, my body began to feel like a traitorous enemy. What at first felt like aches and pains from a virus became nightly leg and feet pain that was nearly unbearable and robbed me of sleep. I was a hospital chaplain, on my feet most of the day, so I assumed that I simply needed to wear more supportive shoes instead of my usual stylish choices. However, nothing seemed to alleviate the pain that gradually began to spread throughout my body. Blinding migraines hit the following spring. By June, I had missed so many days of work that, weeping, I tendered my resignation.

Despite having classic symptoms, it still took eight months and numerous doctor visits to receive a diagnosis other than it being ‘all in my head’ or ‘depression.’ I had fibromyalgia. At the time, there weren’t many options other than pain meds, which I didn’t want because addiction runs strong in my family of origin.

There were many dark days to follow, months searching for treatments or cures, (there aren’t any), and numerous seasons questioning why, why, why. An understanding doctor, a fibromyalgia clinic in Atlanta, a husband who would stop at nothing to see me receive whatever I needed, and a patient, loving Father saw me through the next two years. Although I don’t know a day without pain somewhere in my body, by the grace of God, it isn’t the focus of my life.

A verse from a song by NEEDTOBREATHE always arrests me when I hear it because I now see pain in a different light, too:

Don’t let the night become the day
Don’t take the darkness to the grave
I know pain is just a place
The will has been broken
Don’t let the fear become the hate
Don’t take the sadness to the grave
I know the fight is on the way
When the sides have been chosen

Pain

Pain, the gift nobody wants, as Paul Brand wrote with Philip Yancey in their classic 1993 book (cleverly titled, Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants). In it, Brand described the staggering lessons he had gleaned from his work with leprosy patients, many of whom had lost the ability to feel any pain at all. One might think that was a good thing, yet Brand reported that the lepers would come to the clinic with festering, infected burns or injuries. Why had they waited so long? They could not feel the pain. Limbs had to be removed due to untreated, un-felt injuries. “The mind responded to these effects of painlessness with a feeling that could only be called suffering,” Brand wrote.

It seems pain and suffering often arrive at the same time. Many of us have suffered helplessly as we watched a loved one die slowly, painfully from a terminal disease such as cancer. Or perhaps like me, you deal with pain on a daily basis. Sometimes we question why. When I was a hospital chaplain, I can’t count the number of times I was asked why God allowed “this to happen” or allowed their loved one to suffer so much. There is an important choice to be made here – we can continue to seek God’s face in the pain or we can let the anger and sadness take us to places of bitter darkness.

Blame

God is an easy target on which to focus blame. After all, He’s in charge of everything. It shouldn’t matter if I’m an unbeliever, or I’ve been blatantly unfaithful. God is LOVE, isn’t He? Even more so if I’m a super-Christian, (aka – overcommitted and uber busy with church activities). Isn’t God supposed to step up when I am in pain and deliver me immediately?

I can’t say that has ever been my experience…has it ever been yours? Have you seen that born out in Scripture? Why, then, do we continue to question the existence of pain and suffering in our lives or in the world?

Suffering

As written in Christianity Today: Stanley Hauerwas, [American theologian and ethicist], famously said, “The great enemy of the church today is not atheism but sentimentality.” In his view, there’s no deeper sentimentality than the presumption that we (or our children) can hold convictions without suffering for them. To have true convictions is to love something bigger than the self, and we cannot love God or others without suffering…holding to our convictions might mean suffering unto death.

The entire Bible is very clear about the inevitability of pain in life. There is even a man in I Chronicles 4:9 whose name means pain! (All childbirth is painful, but wow! That’s harsh!) Interesting side note, being named Pain (or Jabez) didn’t scar him for life. In fact, “Jabez was more honorable than his brothers…” Is it possible pain has a positive purpose?

If you have ever read Hebrews 11 in its entirety, you know that it contains many who died in the faith, not having received the promises…(v13, NKJV). Verses 35-40 describe types of suffering and trials which men and women of faith endured because they knew that God had provided something better for us (v40, NKJV). These were people of whom the world was not worthy, (v 38, NKJV), yet we shudder to contemplate modeling our lives after them. Their suffering seems too monumental.

Sacrifice

And of course, there is the example of Jesus, telling us boldly in John 15 that love, not emotional, flighty, what’s-in-it-for-me “love,” but genuine love, sacrificial love, love that forgets about my wants and needs in order to meet my husband’s or my child’s or neighbor’s needs when necessary, the kind that dies to self over and over and over in order to display the love of Jesus…that kind of love is His commandment. It’s not a suggestion and He isn’t telling us to do something He hasn’t done or isn’t doing.

Love lays down its life.

Jesus simply commanded His disciples to love others in the same way He had been loving them, even as He was moving inexorably toward the cross. Nothing was going to stop Him, no torture, pain, suffering or betrayal of friends; He knew what was required for our redemption.

Nothing was going to stop Him, no torture, pain, suffering or betrayal of friends; He knew what was required for our redemption. Click To Tweet

Love laid down His life.

It’s usually painful – loving, that is…and life, too. Look no farther than the evening news for proof of the latter and at the last argument, you had with your spouse or close friend for the former. But imagine this world – or your life – without a trace of His love. It’s unimaginable, isn’t it?

The older I get the more I realize that I have only touched the hem of His garment where His love is concerned.

He freely gave it. He freely died.

And He commanded us to do likewise.

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uncomfortable, suffering, pursuing, pursued

Uncomfortable: Intimately Knowing God Through Suffering

Devotionals, Stay SaneDecember 21, 2017September 8, 2019

Christianity is hard and uncomfortable. Pursuing God through our suffering results in blessings and knowing Him more intimately.

I laid awake last night pondering the brokenness and sorrow surrounding us. The desperation is palpable. As I prayed, a verse nestled deep in my soul sprung to mind and repeated until I fell asleep.

I would have despaired unless I had believed I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Psalm 27:13, NASB

When I got up this morning I went to the book shelf and retrieved the New American Standard Bible my parents gifted to me on Christmas day, 1990. Most other versions don’t include the part about despairing. NKJV says, “I would have lost heart,” but ESV, NIV, HCSB and NLT skip straight to being confident about seeing God’s goodness while here on earth.

Most days I feel that unwavering assurance, but what about the days when that conviction wavers? When the days turn into weeks or months? When you yell at the sky WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

Uncomfortable: Pursuing God In Spite of Suffering

Some of the people I love are hard pressed on every side. I wish I could swoop in and take on their struggle. But who am I to say I could weather a storm better if God has given a season of testing to someone else; to my friend…to my child? Stepping back, I am humbly reminded I am not their savior. I have no idea how God is working sadness or brokenness or devastation for His glory. He has used painfully uncomfortable times in my life to produce a courageous heart. Can He not do that for them?

C.S. Lewis said, “If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”

Why Christianity then?

Pursuing the God of the bible has not saved me from heartache in this world; instead it seems to draw it like a magnet! But I have experienced God’s goodness. I have been wrapped in His peace that surpasses understanding. There was a time when I felt Christianity was only the best option and no other religion or belief was worth pursuing. In essence, if this world was all there was, I would still have lived a good life. I had no clue how thinking in those terms revealed the depth of my distrust. Only through the foundation of the scripture was I able to stop doubting and believe (John 20:27, NIV) when I encountered heartbreak, fear, and loss.

Uncomfortable: Blessing from Suffering

It’s not all bad either. There is much good. In just my small sphere of life, I have witnessed God restore broken friendships and shattered marriages. God literally raised my son from the dead when his heart had not beat for nearly 10 minutes. I swore off volunteering in children’s ministry at church, yet through the power of the Holy Spirit, God softened my heart and is not only using me to guide young minds toward the gospel, but He is blessing me in the process!

I am sincerely grateful for the glimmer of hope that has carried me for so long; yesterday’s belief has sustained me. Now I want the raging wildfire that doesn’t cower at challenge or shrivel up when tragedy strikes. On good days, I have prayed “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!” (Psalm 139:23, ESV). May I not recoil and complain when He does just that. Suffering is a necessity to achieve gratitude and grasp the fullness of life that is found in Jesus Christ.

I love Brennen Manning’s eloquent thoughts on the matter. “It is hard to be a Christian, but it is too dull to be anything else. When Jesus comes into our lives with his scandalous cross in the form of mental anguish, physical suffering, and wounds of the spirit that will not close, we pray for the courage to ‘stand fast a little’ against the insidious realism of the world, the flesh, and the devil.”

Uncomfortable: Intimately Knowing God

My son asked me this morning, “How can I make daddy laugh?” I laughed. “It’s taken me 20 years to learn that art; it’s not exactly something I can explain. You have to know him,” I said. “I do know him!” he argued. I said, “It’s the same with God. In order to know what pleases someone, what they enjoy, what makes them happy, sad, excited – what makes them tick – you have to spend time with them. As you get to know them more intimately, you learn how to say something at just the right moment to bring a smile to their face.”

To be loved and pursued is at the core of every human being. It is a longing placed there by God. He fulfills that daily through His word and any other means He chooses to use to make us aware that He is the God who sees. He is here. There is no one like Him.

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Glenna Hopper

but God…pursued

Because the Lord loves you fiercely, you are pursued fiercely. When circumstances arise that feel like attacks against you, know that God is using them to bring you into a deeper relationship with Him.

Respond: What Are We To Do In These Last Days?

Devotionals, Stay SaneNovember 29, 2017June 28, 2019

Tragedy is occurring all around us at an alarming rate. How are we to respond to the devastation? What are we to do in these last days?

An earthquake in Iraq kills over 400 people.

A driver mows down people on a cycling path in New York city, killing 8.

A crazed gunman enters a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, his gun blazing, killing anyone who made a noise…including babies. He slaughtered 26 people.

After leaving a relative’s home, located in one of the nicer neighborhoods of the city, a young couple was accosted by two armed teens. Shots were fired. The 30 year old husband of 9 days gave his life to protect his bride. They attended my church.

The young man who killed the cyclists with a box truck believed he was doing it for his god.

It is reported that the mentally ill gunman had a grudge against his mother-in-law, who is a member of the church he decimated. She wasn’t attending that day.

The two 15 year old boys who shot the young groom wanted money. “Random robbery,” the police said.

Respond: Living With Tragedy

Tragedy…it’s happening on a regular basis now, occurring so often that we’re numbed by the news stories of death and loss. Until it hits in our home turf.

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

2 Timothy 3:1-4, NKJV

Is this world losing its mind?

Every generation since Christ walked the earth has asked, “Are these the last days?” Even the disciples questioned Jesus about it!

As He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray…And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains…

Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away…And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end; will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Matthew 24:3-14, NKJV

Respond: What To Do Amidst Tragedy

Would it surprise you to know that Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world? I’m not quoting a Christian magazine or organization; even secular news has taken note. Increasingly, Christians are hated in America, but they are dying for the gospel around the world.

What is our response to these last days occurrences? To this evil that lives in our midst? Should we quake in fear? Sometimes it does feel frightening.

Or, conversely, go to the mission field? Be part of proclaiming the gospel to other countries? If you are called, go, but we’re living in a mission field.

Perhaps the most difficult thing to do is Paul’s charge to Timothy…

But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 3:14-15, NKJV

I don’t know about you, but in the face of crisis, I want to go DO SOMETHING! Point me in the right direction and I will charge! However, I’ve been known to make a few messes in that state of mind; Paul has a different message.

But you…continue in the things you know are true. Continue in the Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus.

In these last days, let’s covenant together to persevere… to continue in the truth… which will make us wise.

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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is from the English Standard Version.

photo credit:
Wil Stewart

brave, courage, courageous, tribulation, suffering, despair, peace

Brave: Having Courage Amidst Suffering

Devotionals, Stay SaneOctober 11, 2017January 13, 2019

In the midst of tribulation, distress, and suffering, we don’t need to hide. Instead, we can be brave living with courage and complete peace.

Brave

What movie character comes to your mind when you think about someone who is brave? Is it an old movie or a newer one? I’m telling my age here, but Harrison Ford often played courageous roles, such as the president in “Air Force One” and Jack Ryan, the CIA analyst in the Tom Clancy-inspired movies. (Probably not a good idea to let him get in a plane these days!)

For many years, my son-in-law, who is a captain in the military, practically idolized the legendary thirteenth century Scottish hero named William Wallace; I’m convinced he wasn’t alone in his adulation. Wallace was played by Mel Gibson in the movie, (have you guessed it?), “Braveheart.” Grown men far and wide beat their chests and secretly fantasized about being William Wallace, or at the very least, saddling up and galloping to a bloody victory beside him. It’s a guy thing.

Recently, I read an article about not giving into fear as we age, but rather “staying brave.” The author related carefree activities she took part in as a young woman which she has been too fearful to do as an older woman, such as driving alone on a long-distance trip. Her insights are interesting; dancing in the rain, traveling a distance alone, walking in the dark, depending on the individual, may each require a level of bravery, but I am not convinced that what she is offering is the definition of being brave.

Brave is defined as possessing or exhibiting courage or courageous endurance.

Hm.

Courage is defined as the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc. without fear.

Ah, there it is; that’s what I am trying to put my finger on – the spirit within which enables a person to face the giant in the middle of the road we’re walking on.

Courage Amidst Suffering

In the past several days, as horror has soaked through our shock upon realizing the carnage one individual can wreak on so many lives, we have also learned that bravery is not a lost character trait in the twenty-first century, as many in my generation have begun to wonder. Countless selfless acts have been reported, some of which cost people their own lives while they protected others. First responders and police officers running toward the gunfire to steer people away from it, civilians risking their lives to lead others to safety; a husband giving his life to save his wife’s are only a few of the stories we have heard. We marvel at their courage and silently pray that we will be as brave should we ever, God forbid, find ourselves in similar circumstances.

I wonder why we are always numbed with shock when horrible things happen in this world? Thank God we can still be shocked, yes! However, it seems Christians have just as much trouble as nonbelievers grasping the evil byproduct the prince of this world foments…as though there remains within us a stubborn resistance to the truth that the Scriptures repeatedly spoke to us about evil. I John 5:19 states clearly that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. In Mark 7:20-23 (ESV) Jesus says (I’m talking red letters here) after expounding on a list of what defiles someone, “All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” Lastly, as a final reminder that evil was here to stay until He returned, Jesus spoke:

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.

John 16:33, ESV

Yes, Jesus was attempting to reassure His disciples, but also His future disciples – us. I love how the Amplified version expounds on this verse. It helps me tease out the richer meaning of the original words that get lost in translation:

I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace. In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous [be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy]; I have overcome the world.” [My conquest is accomplished, My victory is abiding.]

John 16:33, AMP

Final Thoughts

2017 has definitely been a year for tribulation, distress and suffering in America alone, not to mention other areas of the world where hurricanes, mudslides and wars are occurring. It can feel overwhelming to hear one tragedy on the heels of another, one appeal for help right after another one. What are we to do? Be afraid because the “end” is near, as some believe?…

It can feel overwhelming to hear one tragedy on the heels of another... What are we to do? Click To Tweet

Not according to Jesus. In truth, we can have complete peace in Him. In the midst of tribulation, distress, and suffering, we don’t need to hide or quake in our boots, but rather, Jesus told us to do the opposite of what seems to come naturally to many of us. He said to be courageous! ‘And while you’re at it, have some joy with that courage because I have overcome the world, folks, so what could you possibly be afraid of??’

And like William Wallace, strap on some armor…

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

Ephesians 6:12-13 ESV

Be brave, sisters.

Encourage others in their pursuit of bravery. These notecards are a reminder that our world may be full of battles, but God has overcome the world!!

Brian Cook

suffering

Having it all Together

A Season for Everything

Suffering

Suffering with Each Other

Joy Comes in the Morning

He is Our Hope

He is Our Deliverer

He is Our Constant

A Dream…

A Promise…

Pain

Blame

Suffering

Sacrifice

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Uncomfortable: Pursuing God In Spite of Suffering

Uncomfortable: Blessing from Suffering

Uncomfortable: Intimately Knowing God

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but God…pursued

Respond: Living With Tragedy

Respond: What To Do Amidst Tragedy

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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is from the English Standard Version.

photo credit: Wil Stewart

Brave

Courage Amidst Suffering

Final Thoughts

photo credit:
Wil Stewart