Tag: Suffering

How To Be Strong and Courageous When You Don’t Feel Like It

“Be strong, be courageous, all you that hope in the LORD.”

Research shows that you experience life primarily through your feelings, and then you process it with your thoughts. From there you make the daily decisions which culminate in where you are today.

Everybody faces daily challenges, and for most of us, it can get wearisome. It’s hard to feel strong when you’re chronically tired. It’s hard to think of yourself as courageous when there is so much to worry about. And hope? That seems like a dream amidst all the bad news we get bombarded with each day.

But it’s precisely when you’re worn out that strength is most needed, and when anxiety is prevalent that the call to courage is so crucial. It’s when times are toughest that our strength and courage can be revealed best, not when times are going well.

What are the challenges you are facing in your everyday life? What are the areas you wish you were stronger in? In what circumstances do you wish you were more courageous? With your health? Your family? Friends? The community? Our nation?

The Psalmist reflects on the role of hope in helping us be strong and courageous. Not hope in general, but hope in the LORD. When you face injustice, when life is unfair, when friends disappoint you and family saddens you, the Psalmist invites you to put your hope in the LORD. [Psalm 31:24 Good News Bible]

When your hope is in the LORD, you trust that he hears you, that he listens to your complaints, that he knows your situation, and that he is with you in it. When you hope in the LORD, you’re trusting that he is at work to bring good out of the difficult situation.

This kind of trusting hope can sustain the strength and courage to keep doing what is right. It can undermine the despair and bitterness that creeps in, and keep us from turning sour and cynical as you try to right what is wrong in the world.

Hope in the LORD does not prevent all of our sufferings, for we live in a beautiful but broken world where every living thing will die. Hope does enable us to be healed from the brokenness and it can magnify what is beautiful in life.

Jesus suffered in this beautiful yet broken world, and it was his hope in the LORD that enabled him to forgive those who betrayed him, bless those who tortured him and love those who hated him.

communion-pritchard-park

Of course, this was not easy for Jesus. It was with blood, sweat, and tears that he prayed for strength and courage to endure the coming crucifixion. It was prayer sustained by hope in the faithfulness and love of the LORD. 

Don’t try to feel strong or courageous, don’t try to feel hopeful.

To be strong, to be courageous, to be hope-full in the LORD are all actions. It’s how others will describe you as they observe you doing the hard work of not despairing, of forgiving, of persevering in justice, mercy, humility, and joy.

How can you become more hope-full in the LORD?

It helps to hang out with others that are also hope-full. Learn from them, talk it out with them, watch them, pray with them.

Together, be attentive to the presence of Christ in your life. Trust that the LORD is with you, always working for the restoration of all things in your community.

Read the gospels of Jesus being strong and courageous, and that of the apostle Paul in the New Testament. Read the stories of the prophets in the Old Testament too.

Take a moment to give thanks throughout the day for what is going well, and ask others for help when it’s getting tough trying to do what is right.

You can also make this your breath-prayer, let it be on your mind and in your spirit throughout the day: “Be strong, be courageous, all you that hope in the LORD.”

 

Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?

Ever asked that question? Most of us have. It’s too common for us, for humanity – our story is full of tragedy and sorrow. How often does it seem like the good die young and the wicked prosper? It makes us wonder whether there is any logic to the universe, is there a good enough reason to justify these injustices, is there anyone in charge up there and do they know what’s going on down here?

In the gospel according to Mark we get an ironic, very human, sad yet poignant start to the ministry of Jesus:

“After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.”

Isn’t it ironic that John’s unjust imprisonment is a starting point for Jesus’ preaching ministry of the gospel of God?

the-gospel-of-mark

It’s interesting that something tragic prompted something good. Maybe John being jailed – which would have shocked, enraged, and broken the hearts of Israel – was the stark wake up call the people needed to open up to God again? This was the last straw – if even John can be jailed, will God ever show up? Maybe people are ready now for what Jesus has to say: “The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

When you think of the bad things that have happened to the good people you know, it ought to make you angry, sad, disappointed, frustrated, and grief-stricken. But for those of us who have been through those sorrows, we know in our heads and hearts that the world can be cruel, that no one gets through this life with out suffering, and that too often badness gets rewarded more than goodness. We know it, we protest it, but what can we do about it? We can feel so hopeless.

It’s in this place that we can be most open to the good news of Jesus. King Jesus is the gospel. He himself is the good news (gospel means “good news”).

crucified Jesus

As the rejected king of Israel, Jesus experienced the worst of humanity, absorbed the violence of the world, was broken and crushed by Israel’s iniquities. Jesus endured the worst of the bad things that happen to the best of the good people. If even Jesus must go through this, then are Christians exempt? No. Though we may still persist in asking “Why?” Jesus understands.

For Christians, when we go through these vales of sorrow, we can be reminded of what the suffering Christ also endured. The good news is that Christ is with us, he mourns with those who mourn. But out of that solidarity of pain comes a new kind of openness to the kingdom of God – to the gospel work of King Jesus redeeming the world. With us. Through us. Subverting evil. Rescuing others from evil. Overcoming evil with good.

Why do bad things happen to good people? I don’t know if I have the best answer. But I believe that Jesus makes possible a new kind of understanding, acceptance, and redemption of suffering and evil.In our good world gone mad, Jesus works to restore all things – nothing is wasted. And Jesus suffers with us while he works in us and through us.

As you reflect on the recent or distant tragedies in your life and our world, it’s easy to dwell on darkness and despair. I know, for I have been there. But consider Jesus, who introduces himself to you and the world while he is in pain, while his friends suffer, always working for the restoration of all things. Listen to his words to you. “‘The time has come,'” he said.”