When the Going Gets Tough

One pastor has called our generation a group of “emotionally fragile quitters.” The first time I heard that I was like, “That’s mean—I’m not gonna listen to you anymore.” Seriously though, I didn’t like hearing that. It's a harsh indictment of the generation to which I belong. But the sad thing is I think I agree with him. When the going gets tough, we definitely get going...to find something easier.

I’m talking about challenges at work, at school, at home—even at church. Ask yourself, when you face something difficult in those areas, how do you respond? Do you immediately begin to think of ways to avoid conflict, or deflect responsibility, or just run away from the problem completely?

That question has been right in front of me for the better part of two years now, as I’m facing trials unlike any others that I have seen. I am constantly faced with a decision to make: do I stay, or do I go? Staying sounds hard. It’s hard already, and things aren’t changing so, yeah, staying sounds hard. And going sounds easy! Things are hard. Go find something easy. Done. Where do I sign? But that just doesn’t seem like the answer to me.

I think we should strive to press on in trials rather than run from them because, to paraphrase Charles Simeon, our worship of God and our conformity to Christ grow best in the soil of affliction.

When life is all butterflies and rainbows, we are tempted to think that our strength is sufficient and God is not needed. But any follower of Christ knows how long that fairy tale will last. Trials come and it is then that those of us who think we are strong get tossed around like a rag doll in a dryer. But that is exactly the state in which we are capable of praising God the most! Because, in our weakness, any overcoming which takes place in our lives must be credited to him.

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” 1 Corinthians 15:10

And no offense to butterflies and rainbows, but who grows at all when life is butterflies and rainbows?! God is gracious to give us times of peace and quiet, free from hardship. But he is more gracious to give us times of adversity because they are an opportunity for us to become like Christ. Jesus Christ suffered for us, dying on the cross for our sins. And God has provided suffering, not for us to pay him back, for we could never do that; but rather for us to be like Jesus by trusting in God to sustain us.

“For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.” 1 Peter 2:21

If you are reading this, then you are a human being. And if you are a human being, then you experience hardship. And if you experience hardship, then you have a decision to make: run away and find something easier; or press on and trust in God, even though it’s really hard.

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God help me to trust in you today. All my mind wants to do right now is figure out how to make life easier by running away from difficulty—in my ministry; in my marriage; in my blogging! As much as I want to run away, I don’t want to miss an opportunity to praise you and mature in my faith. Be lifted up in my suffering; be magnified by the grace you give that works in me; and be glorified by the endurance you are producing in me through these trials I face.

Studying. Doing. Teaching.

Last Wednesday night I was pleasantly surprised to have a conversation with an old friend right after our student ministry gathering. He has served in a different student ministry for the last 4-5 years, but had decided to take this year off. He told me he had slid into a habit of studying God’s word, and trying to teach it to students, but wasn’t living it himself.

He pointed to a verse that had helped open his eyes to see this problem. Ezra 7:10, “For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of God, and to do it, and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.” My friend said the order was crucial for him to see—studying. doing. teaching. He explained to me that he had unintentionally removed the middle step, and it was taking a toll. His relationships at home were suffering, and more importantly, his relationship with God was suffering. How could he teach others to do what he was not doing himself? So he was taking a difficult but necessary step back in an effort to repair and restore those relationships.

I was reminded of a quote from one of my favorite dead guys (and I have a lot of favorite dead guys). John Owen once said, “A man preacheth that sermon only well unto others which preacheth itself in his own soul.  And he that doth not feed on and thrive in the digestion of the food which he provides for others will scarce make it savoury unto them; yea, he knows not but the food he hath provided may be poison, unless he have really tasted of it himself.  If the word do not dwell with power in us, it will not pass with power from us.”

If a man desires to teach or preach God’s word to others, he must first taste of it himself. And once he has tasted it (studying) and thrived in it (doing) he is able to help others savor it as well (teaching).

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God, help me to taste and see that your word is sweet to my soul! Give me a deeper longing to feed on the food of the Scriptures and thrive in it. May I be a student of your word, and a doer of your word, before I ever attempt to be a teacher of your word.

Experiences can be Deceiving

For those of you know me, you know that I have a silly side and I’m not afraid to use it. It’s not uncommon for Sarah to roll her eyes and lament her marriage to a five year old. Feeling like a child in my marriage every once in awhile is fun and Sarah and I get to laugh together at my expense.

Unfortunately, it is also not uncommon for me to feel like a child in ministry, and it’s not because I am being silly and there is nothing fun about it. I began full time work in student ministry over a year ago, but it still feels like I just started yesterday. I am often overwhelmed by the weight of ministering to students with God’s word, managing relationships in the church, and balancing ministry and family life simultaneously. But I have noticed that certain things get easier as I get more experience doing them. So I often think that all I need is more experience to make me more mature and therefore more competent in ministry.

That way of thinking is gently rebuked by this paragraph from Paul Tripp:

“There is a critical difference between street-level wisdom gained from experience and spiritual maturity. You may know what's going to happen next, but you may not deal well with these circumstances because you lack maturity. If all we needed for maturity was experience, we'd know a lot more mature people, and Jesus would not have needed to come. Experience will teach you some things, but it has no power to make you holy. Sadly, when you let experience deceive you, you quit being committed to change, because you don't think it's needed.”

Experience can be a very good teacher. It has the power to teach me some things in the work of the ministry. But I need to remember that it has no power to make me holy.

God help me not to be deceived by experience. Don’t let me be snared by the trap of maturity based on my experience. Give me a desire to grow in holiness and therefore a desire to be committed to change for the rest of my life. Let experience be my teacher; let it not be the basis of my spiritual maturity. May it ever be that even as I grow in experience, the mark of my spiritual maturity would be to think of myself exactly as I ought—a man condemned apart from grace; but by grace, set free to change no matter how much experience I may obtain.