A Great Struggle: Trial vs. Complacency

From “My Utmost For His Highest,” May 19 -

"OUT OF THE WRECK I RISE"

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" Romans 8:35
God does not keep a man immune from trouble; He says - "I will be with him in trouble." It does not matter what actual troubles in the most extreme form get hold of a man's life, not one of them can separate him from his relationship to God. We are "more than conquerors in all these things." Paul is not talking of imaginary things, but of things that are desperately actual; and he says we are super-victors in the midst of them, not by our ingenuity, or by our courage, or by anything other than the fact that not one of them affects our relationship to God in Jesus

Christ. Rightly or wrongly, we are where we are, exactly in the condition we are in. I am sorry for the Christian who has not something in his circumstances he wishes was not there.
"Shall tribulation . . . ?" Tribulation is never a noble thing; but let tribulation be what it may - exhausting, galling, fatiguing, it is not able to separate us from the love of God. Never let cares or tribulations separate you from the fact that God loves you.
"Shall anguish . . . ?" - can God's love hold when everything says that His love is a lie, and that there is no such thing as justice?
"Shall famine . . . ?" - can we not only believe in the love of God but be more than conquerors, even while we are being starved?
Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver and Paul is deluded, or some extraordinary thing happens to a man who holds on to the love of God when the odds are all against God's character. Logic is silenced in the face of every one of these things. Only one thing can account for it - the love of God in Christ Jesus. "Out of the wreck I rise" every time.

Does this speak to anyone else? There are two sentences that jump more than any other to me. The first is “I am sorry for the Christian who has not something in his circumstances he wishes was not there.” At first read, that may seem over-the-head spiritualized, or alternatively you may think, “that condition is always met—there is always at least some little thing,” and therefore dismiss the statement. However, this hit me because…I have experienced it. I can think back to a specific period in my life where there was almost nothing that I consciously wished wasn’t there. And if you know what I know about it, then you would agree with O.C. that you are sorry for me in that moment. That period of time, the last time “everything in the world was right,” marked the beginning of a spiritually dry period in my life. You see, shortly following that period, it all started to crumble—most disturbing of all, my focus and relationship with Christ. I did not recognize my need of Him. I became an angry, self-centered, prideful, arrogant man…or something short of a real man of God. Though it is hard to purge every bad behavior or tendency from the flesh because we are in part just that—flesh—the point is that there was a noticeable difference in me.

Oh yes, on a given day without much sleep the night before I would probably complain that I was tired and needed a break. Ok, ok, yes, there were circumstances, minor to me, that I wished were different, to O.C.’s point…but I don’t think that’s his main point, after all. Overall, I was content…and complacent. And I never thought about it quite like this until reading O.C’s pity for a person in that situation. Perhaps you’ve experienced it and know exactly where he’s coming from. Perhaps you haven’t, but now I hope you can see it before it would happen to you. And we don’t become masochists that want trial to keep our soul’s awareness up…but we might perceive them differently, if such trials do persist. God is shown through our trials. If you reach a situation where for an extended period of time (I’ll say months), there is no major distraction that hampers your mind, body, or soul…nothing that troubles you…perhaps that is the moment we need to reach for God the most. Don’t get me wrong—there are seasons of great blessing. Thank our Good Lord that for most of us in America it has been the greater portion of our lives. But those times of blessing aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive from the trials. In fact, the past 2+ years of my life can be seen in two completely different ways, depending on the lens that the viewer uses.

If you know anything about polarizing lenses, you know that they can filter out parts of visible light. Use the right lens and the distracting light is filtered out, leaving the desired light. Use the wrong lens and the opposite effect is observed. If you remove the polarizing lenses from my recent life, then you can see the vastly different perspectives: one would say that it’s been the worst, most trial ridden and heartbreaking stretch of my life by far. A concentrated dose of hardship, both physical and emotional. And I’ll inform you that it has been spiritually trying, as well. All of that is true. The other perspective is also true: that it has been the most enriching, nourishing, wonderful 2 years of my life. I have been led to search my heart and search out God as never before. He has rescued me and restored me, and all the while taken great care of me, blessing me with a relationship with Him that far outweighs anything we could see in this physical world. And physical blessings still persist, as well (simply consider that I’ve had a job the entire time, for starters).

So the worst 2 years of my life have been my best and favorite 2 years. I use the word “favorite” and immediately begin to remember the times of no trials and wonderful abounding blessings with no perceived difficulties—and I am drawn toward them immediately. Perhaps those are my “favorite.” But then again I consider that I could not and would not choose to go back there, for it would take me away from my current relationship with God to a place farther from Him. Easier in the flesh, but devastating to the soul. These are things that I could only see after the fact, and I see them now.

Maybe we shouldn’t lament our circumstances so much, when you think of the alternative “easy life.” If you’re experiencing the “easy life,” thank God right now. Give Him the glory, live for Him through it, let it be your witness, making you even more keenly aware of His presence, instead of numbing you to it. But also realize that great transformation of individuals and of mass civilizations has come through great trial…great trial that purges evil, sets believers faces on God, and demonstrates all the perfect love and grace that is our perfect God.