Hard Times

I've been thinking lately about hard times, and am convinced that we are soft.  We have been lulled into complacency by modern convenience, a pill or therapy for every ache, 24 hour distractions on 500 channels, most of us having a warm place to sleep, what we in the military call "three hots and a cot." 

When trouble comes our way, we are shocked, surprised, offended even.  We rail at the circumstances, blame the government, curse the Almighty.  How unusual our attitudes are.  How counterproductive.  How unhistorical.  And for the Bible-believing Christians among us, how unbiblical. 

Back in the old days, trouble was expected.  Hobbes said "The life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."  People longed for heaven because of how horrible life was.  People expected to suffer and were not surprised because suffering was common.

When the Apostle Paul embarked on one of his missionary journeys to encourage new believers and strengthen new congregations, he proclaimed the following message:  "We must go through many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God (Acts 14:22)." 

Now that is not your typical self-help, feel good sermon.  That is raw meat, painful to hear but a good dose of reality.

We:  all of us, believers, leaders, apostles, are together going to face hardships.  We are in it together.  Paul's bio is replete with suffering, hard work, rejection, stoning, and more.

Must:  hardships are normal, required and not an option.  An expected state of life.

Go Through:  We go THROUGH them, not over them or under them.  This life is a journey of hard times.  Psalm 23 talks of the dark valleys of life.  This "going through" requires endurance.

Many:  Expect many hardships.  If you get less than many, all the better and thank God.

Hardships:  Tribulations.  Trials. Tests of faith and character.  Life is about continual problem solving.  We have got to get over the modern conceit of asking "Why is this happening to me?"  As if the whole cosmos revolves around you and me.  Instead, a better question to ask is "Why not me?" 

To Enter the Kingdom of God:  There is a sense of the Already and the Not Yet.  What we have recieved and what is yet to come.  Of the impartial fulfillment of God's promises.  Paul gave this saying to believers, whom God had saved, healed, gathered into congregations, appointed as elders, and taught the Faith.  Paul is not saying that we are saved by sufferings.  Paul is saying that we are going to suffer, but that in the end, in eternity, God's ultimate reign will be realized and we will look back and say it was all worth it.  ©2010 Ray Woolridge