When Troubles Rise

Is there anything we are more likely to misinterpret than trials? Is there anything we are more likely to respond to in an emotionally asymmetric way than adversity? Every instinct we have as human beings is to desire fair weather. Unbridle confidence can spin on a dime and become unbridled anxiety in the face of pain and suffering. We leave our humanity behind and resemble primal beasts that only see in pain a reason to run.

But even a wild creature may be tamed and taught to trust. A dog may sit still while a wound is cleansed if his head rests in the lap of a trusted master. A horse may be calmed by the stroking of a hand that has oft led it and fed it. If we trust God, and we believe that there is some relationship between our trials and our God, then we, too, may learn to rightly interpret our trials.

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

James 1:2-3

God is sovereign over our trials.

No storm has ever arisen that was outside of His controls. All things are working for good because all things must submit to His wisdom and His purpose. The envy of Joseph’s brothers and the Pharisee’s hatred of Jesus were both evil, and yet were both unwitting agents of a greater Good that brought about a greater redemption. History is not being made: it is unfolding according to the redemptive plan of our Creator.

Maybe the reason we struggle so hard to accept that trials are an inevitable part of life is because  we have made the mistaken assumption that to be a Christian means to have some level of control over our lives. Or maybe we struggle with the assumption that since God has loved us in an ultimate way, pain must be outside of His plan for us. Instead, we should remember that God’s plan for His Son included great suffering and we are walking in His footsteps. You didn’t wake up to a morning of trials and find God asleep. This is still the day that God is making, and we are to rejoice and be glad in it.

(28) And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.  (29)  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Romans 8:28-29

God doesn’t bring trails to make you quit.

He brings trials to reveal His Son in you. Like the sculptor patiently chipping away all the pieces that don’t belong, God determined to turn you into the image of His Son. We tend to think that if all pieces do not fall into place then it must be an indication that we are outside of God’s plan and blessing. We misinterpret the difficulties as being indications that we should just give up. We respond with discouragement instead of resolve when the reports are not all favorable.

When a father abandons his family, we don’t think “That guy read the signs correctly.” When a pastor quits praying, we don’t think “There’s a man who has come to grips with reality.” Trials don’t come to make us quit: they come to make us more like Jesus. The emotional asymmetry we experience when life is difficult often arises because of our broken theology: we don’t really believe that God is more concerned with what He can do in me than what he can do through me. Trials are tailor made to expose my weakness and my sin and my immaturity so that I can become more like Jesus.

It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes. 

Psalm 119:71

God doesn’t bring trials to reduce ministry

He brings trials to increase ministry. Part of the reason this one is so hard to see is because we equate ministry with metrics that can be deceptive. Increased church attendance looks like fruitful ministry, but it might not be. A full calendar makes us feel productive, but it might just be busy-ness.  We think that long-term gospel fruitfulness can be measured with a snapshot than we can post to social media.

But ministry flows from the things that break us open. Gospel incense is lit by the flame of suffering. The church grows through persecution and adversity. The day of visitation comes following a season of being reviled. Adversity makes us think that our ministry is shrinking, but that simply isn’t something we are capable of deciphering. God’s plan isn’t suddenly falling apart: it’s falling into place.

(8) We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;  (9)  Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;  (10)  Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

2 Corinthians 4:8-10

Even a beast may patiently endure when calmed by the touch of their master’s hand. Should not the sons and daughters of God confidently endure their trials, looking for the perfecting of the soul and the doors of opportunity that they bring, when we realize we are held in the nail-scarred hand of the One who loves us?