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| Our best growth is in the difficult places |
We live in a time of great uncertainty where change seems to
be constant and most of it doesn’t seem to be “change for the better.” From frightening natural disasters and
unexpected job losses, to broken relationships and protracted illnesses, life
can throw a lot of difficult things in our path. Back in the early days of Christianity, the
Apostle Peter was leading the church of Rome through a terrible persecution
(this was when Nero burned Rome and scapegoated the Christians) and decided to
write his Christian friends in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) to tell them to
prepare their minds and hearts for persecution that was most certainly on the
way. This document (the epistle of 1
Peter in the New Testament) is just as vital today as it was then in teaching
us how we are to think and act in difficult times.
1.
We
have a guarantee of “tomorrow” from the God who made “today”. 1 Peter 1:3 reads “Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a
living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..”. It’s sad how many empty promises people are
given and hang on to for hope these days.
The economy and stock market are going up, happy days are here again. Vote for me and I’ll change things for the
better. Really, I mean it this
time! If you take this supplement three
times daily you will finally have a perfect body, whiter teeth, fresher breath
and loads of sex appeal. Go to this
all-inclusive resort and you’ll have the time of your life. Peter calls our hope as Christians a living
one because it is anchored in Jesus Christ being raised from the dead. The greatest existential threat to all people
that today may be their last. If you
belong to Christ, you have the certainty of living through death because Christ
did and came back to talk about it. He
said that he goes to prepare a place for us that where he is, there we shall be
also (Jn. 14:3). No matter what happens
in this life, there is a certain promise we will outlive our problems.
2.
We have a certain future that is far
better than our present. St.
Peter goes on to say in his letter that we are called to an inheritance that is
“imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” (1:4) that is kept in heaven for
us. This is fundamentally the opposite
of what we experience here on earth.
Virtually everything perishes,
becomes corrupted (the meaning of the defilement in the New Testament), and fades. Sometimes the principle of entropy is the
very source of the difficult time we are in.
The car breaks down and it can’t be fixed. Relationships disintegrate because of an
accumulation of broken trust. The fit
and firm body we once had is worn out.
The promise that we must take to heart is that there will be a day when
things will stop falling apart and
fading away. This life requires us to
accept many losses, sometimes loss at a catastrophic level. In heaven this will be no more. Life will always be getting better.
3.
We have “coverage” better than any
insurance policy. In 1 Peter
1:5 he says we are, by the power of God, “being guarded through faith for a
salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” The word Peter uses for being guarded is a
military term that can also be translated “shielded”. The idea is that God shields his people in
difficult circumstances. “Now wait a
minute,” I can hear you say, “God didn’t shield me when such and so happened!” First of all, I said circumstances not consequences. Sometimes the difficulties we face are
actually the consequences of our poor choices or sinful thinking. God sometimes does protect us from the full
consequences of our sin, but he is not raising us to be perpetual children, but
the responsible adults of his kingdom.
Therefore, he helps us to grow up by making us live with the
consequences of our choices. But other
times God doesn’t shield us from external forces but rather gives us internal
armor to withstand those forces. This is
what I would call unfailing endurance.
Either way, God does protect his own until the day when we realize all
of his promises in Christ.
4.
We have a joy separated from personal
circumstance. In 1 Peter
1:6, Peter speaks of his friends rejoicing even though “now for a little while,
if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.” Why would anyone rejoice in their
trials? Because trials test and prove
out the reality of our faith. It is what
I would call a “Francis Scott Key experience.”
As he spent the night of Sept. 14, 1814 on a British battleship watching
our nation’s enemy bombard Fort McHenry for 20 hours, his excitement was not
about the “rocket’s red glare” or “the bombs bursting in air” but that despite
the ordeal, the Star - Spangled Banner was still there. So with our faith. We see in the ordeal that we still trust God
and that he gives us endurance. This in
turn gives confidence that he is living in us and we in him and that our faith
is real. When you know God loves you and
the promise of heaven is real, joy abounds without being connected to your
personal circumstance.
None of these things will make going through a difficult
time a pleasant or enjoyable experience.
But as Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church writes: “the way you think determines the way you
feel, and the way you feel determines the way you act.” When we think differently about the troubles
we face and focus on the long-term promise of future grace, it makes the weight
of circumstances a bit easier to bear.
Hope always has that kind of effect.
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