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we can tend to think or pretend
that a good life is mutually exclusive
of pain a painful life that those two
things can’t exist that we’re striving
for ease
and happiness and we’re looking for that
and then as even as i talk to my sons
about what it means to
to walk with the lord and be a believer
and be a christian it doesn’t mean ease
it means that when there is pain and
suffering god can still be glorified
through your life
and that he is fully able to turn the
situation around
we cannot live and not have any
suffering any painful times any seasons
that we wouldn’t prefer you’re going to
it’s guaranteed just by virtue that
we’re alive and man i can remember there
were three women um that were each going
through separate hard times this is
maybe three years ago and during that
year there were three women in my life
that were all going through i mean hard
stuff illness
trauma
and each of them were at such a low
point a hard point with their
physicality that they either didn’t have
the strength to literally pick up their
bible and read or they couldn’t attend
church anymore because of their health
issues they literally could not function
in the way they usually would because of
what was happening in their life
and each of them independently of each
other they don’t even know each other
but as i was talking to them
individually
and spending time with them they each
said something similar they said i’m so
glad that me and the lord already had a
thing going on
because now that i’m in the midst of
this where maybe i can’t even get out of
the bed there are scripture verses that
will come to my mind or there’s hymns
right mom was one of them there are
hymns that mom would just start singing
when she couldn’t even move anymore she
would just start singing these little
hymns that that were buried on the
inside of her
she would be encouraged by it these
women were encouraged by things that the
holy spirit would bring to their mind
about their friendship with the lord
they were so glad
that they had stabilized themselves in
good times in preparation for bad times
and so i think that’s so critical for
all of us
knowing that we’re going to walk through
suffering they’re going to be things
that come in our lives that we do not
prefer well then when things are pretty
steady we better be using that time to
cultivate a friendship and a stability
with the lord you know i think i do
think that we handle we process things
and we handle things
differently
you know and i and i and i have a way to
and i think it was the way i was raised
like you know when my kids would fall
down and scrape their knee and i’m like
you’re okay you’re okay come on come on
come on come on you’re okay you’re okay
you know and and i think it may be the
generation that my mother was raised in
and i was raised in that it’s like okay
just don’t worry about that we can’t
look at that we can’t think of that we
can’t we can’t take time to process that
you know we’ve got to move forward we’ve
just got to move forward and sometimes i
think it results in stuffing things down
you know and and maybe that has you know
uh
detrimental effects
and i think the way i process things is
i try to ignore certain things you know
and i like of course i process it
through prayer and talking to god and i
think
but you know it’s how we it’s how we
find ourselves doing different things
different situations you know like if
you’re talking about your mother’s death
you know you probably i don’t know if
you even processed it the same way
nope if you found yourself doing it
differently
but i mean you can’t you can’t get any
more suffering than death and loss like
that you know that’s just a that tears
your soul you know that’s a tearing away
literally yeah and so uh i think i think
that we shouldn’t be ashamed that we
process it differently or feel like this
one did it better than i did or you know
so i think sometimes i just think about
people listening and and they’re
thinking well how should i process
suffering you know i mean i think the
first thing we need to do is run to the
father that’s right because he’s the
only one that can help us
and to be truthful with him honest and
honest and open and um
you know david you could hear in his in
in in his writings you know he was open
he was honest with god but it was as he
began to talk he began to shift that’s
right his perspective that’s right and
it was it was only by the power of the
holy spirit it was only by god you know
shifting that for him and helping him
see things in a different way and
enlighten him
in it in a different way but i i think
that i can just hear some people say
well how am i supposed to
and i think you have to do it by going
to god and in your own personal way
that’s right that’s right and and also
the ministry of community yes people who
have suffered as you are suffering i
think that’s at least one of the
benefits that come out of tough times in
our individual lives is that we come out
of that tunnel to the other side that we
never thought we’d make it through and
then the lord gives us opportunity to
comfort those with the comfort that we
have been given and to give them that
same hope that listen i just went
through this tunnel and made it out
let me tell you and let me show you how
the holy spirit helped me how um prayer
works how you know community during my
time of suffering was so important
people encouraging me now let me offer
that same encouragement to you um
victoria you know your your husband did
that for me
he called me while mom was sick
and i mean that man encouraged me
and just said you know we we walk
through real difficult times as well so
let me remind you of some of the things
that it’s so easy either to forget or to
just have so dulled and pushed down
underneath all of the
the um urgent sort of
things that are that you’re facing in
the middle of a crisis it can be so
dulled that you just need someone to
come alongside of you and say let me
remind you of who jesus is that he still
is who he says he is that he is still
able and fully capable of covering you
and your family to have people’s voices
in your ear who can remind you of that
and can also give you perspective from
their own
seasons of suffering
it buoys you up and keeps you going to
the next 24 hours like nothing else like
nothing else yeah
you know i i always think
going through suffering and hardships
and people dying that you’ve believed
god for yeah i mean we’ve we’ve all put
our faith on the line for so many things
and just
god please
you know please
let this happen and and to think that
jesus
got the father’s no
as well
you know he he got
he got god’s no
and
so i think praying the gethsemane’s
prayer it’s it’s
god i know you can i know you can
deliver me i know you can do this i know
you’re the great physician i know you
you know you are the the father to the
fatherless and the husband to the
husbandless and all the things that you
are you’re the great physician
and i know you can do it
but if you don’t
thy kingdom come
thy will be done and jesus had to do
that
please let this cup pass from me we can
we can say who god is and then we can
pray god please don’t make me do this
don’t let
don’t let me and my children have to
walk this road
but then
it’s
but not my will but thine be done
you know and and
knowing the faithfulness and the love of
god
and the comfort of the holy spirit to
take us in the grace and the mercy of
god to bring us out
of those times to to to strengthen us i
mean
think about some of the hardest things
you’ve gone through it makes you who you
are today gives you something gives you
absolutely the tenacity i mean if it’s
given me nothing but tenacity to believe
god even harder the next time
whether it happened or not it
it does something on the inside of us to
strengthen
our faith i believe
if you don’t
let go if you don’t stop if you don’t
give up and
you know and don’t you think that
we have to retr retrain our own thinking
and make sure we do this with the
children or the other people that we’re
discipling and pouring into as
christians
we can tend to think or pretend
that a good life is mutually exclusive
of pain a painful life that those two
things can’t exist that we’re striving
for ease
and happiness and we’re looking for that
and i know people that’s that’s kind of
a
a western kind of perspective on on
being a believer that ease is what we’re
after that happiness is what we’re after
there are some people christians in
other parts of the world
um i remember someone saying to me
that that lives in another part of the
world that
when there is suffering happening
amongst them that their first prayer is
not deliverance from that suffering they
pray that too but that’s not the first
prayer the first prayer is
lord help me to glorify you in this
suffering
while i’m here since i’m here can your
name be made great somehow through this
suffering now lord yes heal and deliver
and free and we know you can do all that
but while you’re going to leave us here
in this moment for whatever time frame
it is a week or a month or whatever lord
would your name be made great while
we’re here and i just thought
it’s important for me and then as even
as i talk to my sons about what it means
to
to walk with the lord and be a believer
and be a christian it doesn’t mean ease
it means that when there is pain and
suffering god can still be glorified
through your life
and that he is fully able to turn the
situation around
but since life is going to come with
difficulty and it is you don’t have to
go looking for the storms of life you
just keep living and the storms somehow
find you so since that’s going to happen
then we at least need to be mindful of
praying okay lord why have you allowed
me to be in this pocket
and would you be glorified through the
way i respond the decisions i make the
way i treat others while i’m in it
let me glorify you while i’m here
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