Tough Times for Christians?
Monday, August 10, 2009
Following Jesus isn’t always easy - or even easy at all. When we make a commitment to follow him, we don’t get a “get out of jail free” card, or an “exempt from life’s problems” stamp. In our faith community at The Well, we have people struggling with health issues. We have people struggling with financial and job issues. We have people struggling with relationships. We have people who are grieving. In other words, we are a community of people living life.
This isn’t new. God’s people have always wrestled with the challenges of life and the balance of faith. In fact, the Bible has a book of worship poems called psalms, and a bunch of these psalms address the pain of life from a God-following perspective. Jesus himself recited the poetry of the psalms during his darkest hours. Here’s one that speaks to me, Psalm 13 (from the New Living Translation of the Bible):
O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever?
How long will you look the other way?
How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul,
with sorrow in my heart every day?
How long will my enemy have the upper hand?
Turn and answer me, O Lord my God!
Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.
Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!”
Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.But I trust in your unfailing love.
I will rejoice because you have rescued me.
I will sing to the Lord
because he is good to me.
This poem was written by a king in his time of trouble. He feels abandoned by God in the midst of his struggle. He knows God is there, but he can’t see how God is there in the midst of his pain. But even in that pain and those trials, he has faith - he trusts that God is at work even though he can’t see God at work.
So what makes following Jesus any different from any other way of life? What makes Christian life worth the effort? Our faith life is one of hope. We believe that God is at work even when we can’t see him. We believe that God loves us and that he has our best interest at heart regardless of our circumstances. And we believe that this life isn’t all that there is.
Our faith isn’t about us and our circumstances, it’s about God. We worship him because he’s God, not because of what we get out of it. We didn’t enter our way of life for good times and great snacks, we are on this journey because we believe that Jesus came to reveal God to us and to fill us with grace and truth.
We know that God loves us, even in the hard times. And if we’re following the footsteps of Jesus, we know that he, too, suffered in this life. And like Jesus, we want to be faithful regardless of personal cost and regardless of life’s situations.
This is kind of hard to write about. It’s no easy answer if you’re in the midst of suffering - perhaps the better words there are that God knows and he cares. If you’d like some company for your journey, you are welcome at The Well.
Peace,
Matt