INTRODUCTION
So, how’s your week been? Hectic? I bet that just about says it all. We run here, we run there run run run, with hardly a moment to be still. And who has time to sit down and eat anymore, It’s a donut here, a fast food burger there, and probably all eaten while on the run. But when it’s all said and done. At the end of the day, after you’ve run here and run there, after you’ve done this and done that. What do you do to calm down from your day? I don’t know about you but I plop right down in front of the boob tube. That’s right I become the preverbal couch potato. I just lay back and from that moment on the only labor I perform is with my clicker finger. And you know the moment I do that the only thing showing on TV is commercials for exercise equipment. Just what I need - more sweating. The commercial I like the most is for the bow flex. I know it by heart. When the 42 year old man says “I’m in better shape now then when I was 22,” I know what’s coming next. “So, are you going to get that body in shape or are you going to let is slide?” Every time I hear that part of the commercial I like to say, “let it slide. I mean, lets be real. Who in their right mind wants to put their bodies under more stress? he question I want answered, is when do things get easier? Have you ever read the Peanut’s cartoon where Charlie Brown is telling his woes to Schroder. T comfort Charlie Brown Schroder says, "Don’t be discouraged, Charlie Brown. These early defeats help to build character for later on in life." Charlie Brown replies, "For what later on in life?" Schroeder answers, "For more defeats!" Here in Romans chapter five the apostle Paul declares,
“we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,"
I read this and I’ve got to ask, is this man crazy? I don’t want to learn how to endure my sufferings. Ijust want to know how to avoid them all together. And what do you mean rejoice in our sufferings. How can Paul expect me to say this to people I see suffering. What is this Paul the Polly Anna approach to pastoral care, “Don’t worry, be happy.” What do you know Paul that I don’t know, that in the face of suffering you would dare to say “rejoice”? In his second letter to the Corinthian church Paul records what he had endured up to that point as a minister of Jesus Christ.
“Five times I have received the forty lashes less one. Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been adrift at sea; I have faced constant danger while on my frequent journeys. Not to mention the sleepless night or the times I’ve experience hunger and thirst, cold and exposure. Apart from all these things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches.”
Wow Paul, I’ve never faced anything like that and maybe that’s the point. When I served as a hospital chaplain in PA I can’t name the number of times I would go in to comfort a family who were experiencing great suffering when someone from that group would say, “You know, I used to think that what we were going through was really bad until I met the guy in other bed.” Perspective, it makes a world of difference. There was another time in my ministry as a hospital chaplain that I will never forget. I was making my rounds visiting those patients that were going into surgery the next day. The first individual I visited was an elderly gentleman who was going in for minor surgery. When I asked him how he was doing he began telling me the story of how as a young man he had served in the army in WW II. He told me how he had seen the dead bodies stack up along the side of the roads in German like so many cords of wood. He spoke of how he had passed mass grave after mass grave without blinking an eye. He told me all of this just to ask, “If I’ve seen all this without it affecting me then why am I so upset over this minor surgery I’m having tomorrow?” I gave him words of comfort and I prayed for him but as I went my way I thought, “hhhmmm, if he only had more faith in God this wouldn’t bother him so much.”
You think those kinds of things when you don’t know any better, but I was about to learn. My next visit was with an elderly woman who was happy to meet me and had a bright and joyful spirit. So it shocked me when she told me that on the next day the doctors were going to remove one of her legs from below the knee. I have never done well with amputations, and I didn’t do well at that moment. My gut twisted up inside me and my skin turned cold and clammy. Forcing the breath through my gritting teeth I asked, “and how are you doing with all this?” I wanted to know because I wasn’t doing very well with it at all. This elderly women looked me in the face and said with a smile, “Oh, it will be all right dear. God has gotten me through tough times before and He will get me through this.” As I stood there overwhelmed by her response I realized that in this situation I was the one who was lacking in faith, and it made me wonder when it comes my turn to face this type of suffering will I respond with faith like this woman or will I struggle like the elderly man.
After all that the apostle Paul had endured, after all that he had suffered for the sake of Christ Paul had learned to say, “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” Hope, Paul learned, comes not at the beginning but at the end of a long journey. Hope must be learned along the road of life and hope does not come easy. To have hope one must first have character. To have character one must first endure the sufferings of life. And to endure the trials and tribulations of this world one must above and beyond all other things remember this divine truth,
“Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand.”
Hope rests not in the belief that we can face anything that comes our way. We can’t, each and everyone of us has a breaking point. Hope rests in the understanding that we are not alone in this. Though we may be overcome at times, God never is. This is the grace of God and when we stand in His grace we learn how to endure. The Christ who endured all things for us offers to us His strength by which we can endure. As the apostle Paul said, “I can do all things in Christ, who strengthens me.” Or as Kelso Carter wrote in his wonderful 1891 hymn,
“Standing on the promises that can not fail,
when the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
by the living Word of God I shall prevail,
standing on the promises of God.
Standing, standing,
standing on the promises of God my savior.
Standing, standing, I’m standing on the promises of God”
Perspective, it makes a world of difference. There was a woman who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and given three months to live. So, as she was getting her things "in order," she contacted her Pastor and had him come to her house to discuss certain aspects of her final wishes. After discussing what she wanted for her funeral service she said excitedly, "There’s one more thing, this is very important. I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand." The pastor stood looking at the woman, not knowing quite what to say. "That surprises you doesn’t it?" the woman asked. "Well, to be honest, I’m puzzled by the request," said the pastor. The woman explained, "In all my years of attending church socials and potluck dinners, I always remember that when the main course dishes were being cleared, someone would lean over and say, ’Keep your fork.’ It was my favorite part because I knew something better was coming... like velvety chocolate cake or deep-dish apple pie. Something wonderful, and with substance! So, I just want people to see me there in that casket with a fork in my hand and I want them to wonder ’What’s with the fork?’ Then I want you to tell them: ’Keep your fork...the best is yet to come.’ "