In November I will celebrate fifteen years of privilege in being the ridiculously happy husband of Amy Lyle. It is without hesitation that I declare that I am married to my best friend and that this woman is so often used of God in my life to help me be who I am designed by Him to be as I take joy in who she is. We’ve recently been talking about what to do in way of celebrating our years together and we are leaning towards taking a trip somewhere around the time of our anniversary. Looking online, comparing costs, pinching pennies and laying out in our minds the options, I found myself getting exhausted with each consideration of packing bags, navigating airports, possibly boarding a cruise liner and then traveling back home. As important as this special time is to us, I started measuring the journey and wondering if the eventual arrival would be worth all the laborious travel. It was then that I caught myself reflecting on a passage of Scripture that spoke to me last week and making a deeper issue out of this cost of the journey vs. the thrill of the destination paradigm.
“For You, O God, have tested us;
You have tried us as silver is tried.
You brought us into the net;
You laid a crushing burden on our backs;
You let men ride over our heads;
we went through fire and through water;
yet You have brought us out to a place of abundance.” – Psalm 66:10-12 {ESV}
It’s a shallow view of the journey of faith which teaches that God’s supreme goal for us is our comfort. It’s not only a shallow view but also a wrong view – unbiblical, imaginary and contrary to the experience of all who have purposed to live by faith in Christ. God will undoubtedly deliver His children safely…but not with a guarantee to insulate us from the troubles of life. Here’s something I’m going to let you wrestle with as you begin your work week: walking by faith is sometimes challenging, excruciating, sacrificial and emptying as it requires your commitment to dying to yourself each and every day.
This is not to say that following Christ is not delighting, intensely satisfying, explosively enlightening, powerfully stabilizing, inwardly thrilling and resulting in peace and joy. I would submit that these are the results of what is written at the last of the paragraph above. Perhaps one of the gravest dangers in modern communication of the Gospel is that we bypass the call to honestly explain the journey while we circumvent the biblical pattern, rerouting people to the end of the Gospel too quickly. We promise them their arrival without clarifying the reality of the journey. This is part of the reason why so many people abandon the faith that they learned from others, a false gospel that promises unhindered ease and blessing. When the reality of the claims of Christ are revealed to them they quickly understand that it is not what they signed up for. Who wishes to die to self for the glory of Another? Sacrificing time and energy and money for an invisible King and the furtherance of an intangible kingdom – this lacks reason. For those who do discern this commitment and proceed forward there is also the risk that the erroneous belief that God prioritizes their comfort above all else will possibly undermine their willingness to endure the difficulties they find. Go back and read the verses above from Psalm 66 and see clearly that the writer is ascribing all of his difficulties and pains to the providence of God. He says that God tests him and his fellow man. God put them in a net from which they were unable to extricate themselves. God loaded them with burdens that brought them low and He allowed men to trample upon them. They were at times burned by life and upon other occasions they were drowned. His testimony is that God not only chose not to protect them from every pain and danger but that He actually ordained these types of things for them. Then the psalmist writes simply,
“Yet You have brought us out to a place of abundance.”
They arrived safely into the appointed harbor. They endured through the storm. They were sustained through the fires. They were shepherded through the valleys. They made it through their many dangers, toils and snares. When the clouds rolled out and the skies opened again they found themselves in a place of abundance. This is the nature of the Gospel, friends. It began with a cross and culminates with a throne. From Gethsemane to Gabbatha to Golgotha to Glory – Jesus Christ pioneered the way and we are followers of Him. It is a non-Gospel which promises advance without resistance, pleasure without a price, victory absent of tears. We owe it to those who do not know our King to be honest enough to admit to them the reality of the pain, weariness, disillusionment, fears, aches, sacrifices and cost which accompanies the call to discipleship. We cannot be liars, can we? When one comes to the Savior he comes relinquishing and renouncing all lesser loves. There is no room for trifling idols in a heart owned by Jesus. His majestic love will supply all we need. He, through the thorns along the journey, often prevents rival forces from besieging our hearts and undermining our arrival. The troubles are not pleasant but, of course, they are necessary. And because they deepen our dependence upon Him…they are good.
For those in Christ who must acknowledge the pain of life: press on, the journey is not without a destination. We are arriving safely.
Jeff, thank you for teaching and preaching the truth of God’s Word, that we will go through trials and tribulations many times in our walk with Christ. There is no other way to draw near to Him and understand the sufferings He went through to give us the gift of eternal life. Any time a child of God sincerely asks for wisdom or to draw nearer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, be prepared to be taught by the sudden and unexpected situations that seem to come out of nowhere. That may not be the way you would have preferred to have your prayers answered, but trust Him in all things.
Wonderful exhortation and so true. My journey has taken me to places & pains I would have never allowed voluntarily, but oh how thankful I am that God is more concerned with my holiness than my happiness! And ultimately, that makes me more than happy, it makes me full of joy. And just for the record, I don’t like to travel either… 🙂