Tag: adversity

Praise and Prayer (Psalm 86:11-17)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Teach me your way, Lord,
        so that I can walk in your truth.
    Make my heart focused
        only on honoring your name.
I give thanks to you, my Lord, my God,
    with all my heart,
    and I will glorify your name forever,
    because your faithful love toward me is awesome
    and because you’ve rescued my life
        from the lowest part of hell.

The arrogant rise up against me, God.
    A gang of violent people want me dead.
    They don’t give a thought for you.
But you, my Lord,
    are a God of compassion and mercy;
    you are very patient and full of faithful love.
Come back to me! Have mercy on me!
    Give your servant your strength;
    save this child of your servant!
Show me a sign of your goodness
    so that those who hate me will see it and be put to shame—
        show a sign that you, Lord,
        have helped me and comforted me. (Common English Bible)

Psalms are prayers. And today’s prayer is from David, a guy who knew what it was like to have evil men hate him and pursue taking his life, through no fault of his own. 

I don’t know about you, but, although I have never faced adversity to such a degree as David, I do know something about people who, to put it bluntly, just flat-out hate my guts. It is not a good feeling, and it can be terribly draining emotionally and even spiritually. 

Having disrespectful and rude people who talk behind your back (and sometimes even to your face) is in direct contrast to who God is.

Who is God? What is God’s character?

God is described by David as merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Whereas insolent people objectify others and do not seek their best interests, God always acts in accord with a basic divine character of love and grace. 

Based upon the nature of God, we can choose to cry out, just like David did, to show us a sign of God’s favor. We can pray for God to provide us with some tangible communication of divine love, given on our level, so that we can grasp and understand it.

For we all, at various points in our life, need help and comfort through hardship and adversity.

Be assured that God hears the cries of the godly. The Lord notices ungodliness and injustice, and will do something about it. 

At the same time we are receiving divine guidance and help, we can trust God to address the insolence that exists around us and toward us.

Why can we trust God? What is the basis of such faith?

Seven times in the psalm, David refers to Yahweh as my Lord. And three times David refers to himself as your servant. This is a relationship – Lord to servant, Creator to creature – and it means the servant can cry out to his Lord and can confidently expect a positive response to his cry.

It is the nature and character of God to be attentive and answer God’s people.

The Lord is merciful and gracious,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Psalm 103:8, NRSV

Because of the divine/human relationship, David can call boldly to God, confident of God’s will and of God’s power to help. The gang of violent people who had it out for David also have no regard for God. So, David is emboldened to pray for divine favor, while at the same time, praying against those that despise him.

Yahweh, the God of David, can deliver us from the lowest parts of hell itself, because God is the expert on deliverance from the worst places that humanity finds themselves in. And so, the Lord is the One who is worthy of praise. Eventually, this reality will ultimately be recognized by all nations.

“Great and amazing are your deeds,
    Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways,
    King of the nations!
Lord, who will not fear
    and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
    All nations will come
    and worship before you,
for your judgments have been revealed.” (Revelation 15:3-4, NRSV)

Praise and petition go together like a hand in a glove. David freely praises God with thanksgiving for the divine character and saving actions – while at the same time, he offers fervent prayer, based upon the understanding that God is good.

David’s impassioned petition is this: Teach me your way, Lord, so that I will walk in truth; and give me an undivided heart to keep on honoring and praising your name. David longed for a completely focused heart on God and God’s will for his life.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5, NRSV)

In those times when we feel as if we are between a rock and a hard place, wanting to remain positive, yet also acknowledging life’s crud, we can come to Psalm 86 and adopt it as our own prayer for the day…

Train me, God, to walk straight;
    then I’ll follow your true path.
Put me together, one heart and mind;
    then, undivided, I’ll worship in joyful fear.
From the bottom of my heart I thank you, dear Lord;
    I’ve never kept secret what you’re up to.
You’ve always been great toward me—what love!
    You snatched me from the brink of disaster!
God, these bullies have reared their heads!
    A gang of thugs is after me—
    and they don’t care a thing about you.
But you, O God, are both tender and kind,
    not easily angered, immense in love,
    and you never, never quit.
So look me in the eye and show kindness,
    give your servant the strength to go on,
    save your dear, dear child!
Make a show of how much you love me
    so the bullies who hate me will stand there slack-jawed,
As you, God, gently and powerfully
    put me back on my feet. (The Message)

Spiritual Support (Ezekiel 29:3-7)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Speak and say, The Lord God proclaims:

I’m against you, Pharaoh, Egypt’s king,
    great crocodile lurking
    in the Nile’s canals,
        who says, “The Nile is all mine;
        I made it for myself!”
I will set hooks in your jaws;
    I will make the fish from the Nile’s canals cling to your scales.
I will drag you out of the Nile’s canals,
    and also all the fish from the Nile’s canals
    clinging to your scales.
        I will fling you out into the desert,
        and also all the fish from the Nile’s canals.
You will fall on the open ground,
    and won’t be gathered or retrieved.

I’ve given you to the beasts of the earth
        and the birds in the sky for food.
Everyone living in Egypt will know that I am the Lord.

Because they were a flimsy crutch for the house of Israel—when they took you in hand, you would splinter and make their shoulders sore; when they leaned on you, you would break, bringing them to their knees. (Common English Bible)

“Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing yet had been done.”

C.S. Lewis

From where, and to whom, do we look to for support?

The Pharaoh of Egypt could open his mouth as wide as a crocodile, but he had no real strength – only talk and no bite – and talk is cheap, especially in the face of a sovereign God.

The Lord had little tolerance for Pharaoh’s bombast, so God decided to don the divine crocodile hunter hat and pull the old creature out of the Nile River.

The reeds that grow along the Nile in Egypt look something like bamboo. They appear as if they might make a decent staff or crutch, but the reeds are not good for that, and if used so, would shatter and put some significant splinters into your hand.

God was warning the Israelites against sizing up Egypt as a significant means of support, and then putting weight on them for help. The leadership of Jerusalem was trusting in Pharaoh and his Egyptian troops to rescue them from the Babylonian army.

But, as we know from history, the Babylonians soundly defeated the Egyptian soldiers. Pharaoh was no support, at all, and became a shattered crutch to Judah, just as God had warned.

We need to be careful about choosing our sources of support. There are a lot of unreliable means of help out there, that people turn to in life.

When going through tough times, we may believe that popularity and power, or alcohol and drugs, or wealth and position will help support us and get us through the hard situation. Yet, they all prove too weak and inadequate in the end.

God is able to carry a person through a crisis, so that we do not just survive it, but grow and thrive through it. We must continually be vigilant and wise to resist the temptation toward the shiny things in life which may draw us to depend upon unreliable things and people. We need God working through God’s people to help support us in a time of need.

Our help is in the name of the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth. (Psalm 124:8, NRSV)

One of the great Christian theologians of the twentieth century, the Protestant Swiss professor Karl Barth, believed that we are not fully human and fully supporting one another apart from:

  • mutual seeing and being seen
  • reciprocal speaking and listening
  • granting one another mutual assistance
  • doing everything with gratitude and gratefulness

Barth used the German term Mitmenschlichkeit (co-humanity) to communicate that we are human and supported with a trusted other person alongside us. In other words, human flourishing requires mutual giving and receiving. Only in relation to each other, including those in need, do we thrive as people.

Christianity is a dependence upon God and an inter-dependence on one another; it’s not an isolated independent venture. Adversity, hardship, and difficulty can become a symbiotic relationship between the care-seeker and the caregiver, within the foundation of Trinitarian love, expressed with grace and hope given by Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.

So, when we talk about spiritual support of another, it includes the following alliterated points:

  • Struggle. Enter another’s spiritual and emotional wrestling along with them, without succumbing to the impetus to change or fix, but to empathize, affirm, and validate emotions and experiences.
  • Share. Seek to be emotionally available and aware – to be present in another’s pain and wonderment, understanding that a person cannot go any deeper with me than I have gone with myself.
  • Story. Listen to the story that a person weaves about their own situation, background, family, support, religious milieu, as well as their personal spiritual and emotional world.
  • Salvation. Allow and give permission to the person to name and resolve their own struggle; because I am neither the Savior nor in the saving business, as if deliverance and freedom depended upon me.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.”

Jesus to his disciples (John 14:1, NRSV)

Trust of another must be given carefully and wisely, not flippantly or thoughtlessly. And becoming a trusting person involves not only a willingness to do so, but also the presence to listen, the place to care, and the passion and commitment to do what is helpful, not hurtful.

Blessed God of support and strength, you have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand has supported me. Your divine help has gotten me through, and given me a wide place for my steps under me, so that my fee do not slip.

Gracious God, you have given me an example through the Lord Jesus that we must support the weak, remembering his words, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” May it be so, in the strength given by the Holy Spirit, to your glory and honor. Amen.

A (Needed) Perspective on the Christian Life (Acts 27:39-44)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Paul’s Shipwreck, by Ludolf Backhuysen (1630–1708)

When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but they saw a bay with a sandy beach, where they decided to run the ship aground if they could. Cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea and at the same time untied the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach. But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The bow stuck fast and would not move, and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf.

The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping. But the centurion wanted to spare Paul’s life and kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. The rest were to get there on planks or on other pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land safely. (New International Version)

Saul was an up and rising star among the Jewish Pharisees. He was committed to his religion to the point of approving the death of the first Christian martyr, Stephen. Saul saw followers of Jesus as an aberration to Judaism, and did whatever he could to stamp out the sect.

During one of his travels to do just that, he was confronted by a vision of Christ himself, who said to Saul, “Why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4-5) For days Saul was blind, mimicking his spiritual blindness. Both his physical and spiritual eyesight were restored when he came to faith in Christ and began following the words and ways of Jesus. His name changed from Saul to Paul the Apostle.

Paul’s conversion was a complete transformation of life. Yet, this in no way meant that the rest of his life was all rainbows and butterflies. Just the opposite. Saul the Persecutor ended up becoming Paul the Persecuted One.

With the same drive and desire that he once had to do away with Christians altogether, so now the Apostle Paul put all that energy into proclaiming the good news of grace and forgiveness in Jesus Christ his Savior and Lord. And, as one might expect, this put Paul in the crosshairs of his former partners, the Jewish Pharisaical leadership. They now despised Paul.

The Jewish religious authorities hated Paul so much that they made sure to stir up trouble for him everywhere he went, even when it was way out in the Gentile sticks of Galatia and the Gentile strongholds of Greece. And that is essentially why Paul landed in prison. He was portrayed as a rebel and a troublemaker, an enemy of the social order (even though Paul himself was actually a citizen of Rome).

As a Roman citizen, Paul invoked his right to appeal to Caesar. And so, he was put on a Roman prison ship, bound from Palestine to Italy. And that is where we pick up today’s New Testament lesson.

Paul had been through an awful lot of adversity, hardship, and persecution. His faith had become so robust that a terrible storm and a shipwreck could not at all wreck his commitment to Christ. In fact, it only strengthened it.

It’s not always easy to see, but Paul’s words to the Roman Christians are true, even for us today:

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

The Apostle Paul (Romans 8:28, NLT)

This is an understanding of God, a deep theological perspective, which is informed by years of walking with Jesus in the crucible of suffering and difficulty. It discerns the Lord as caring and loving, even when it appears on the surface that God is mean and capricious.

Many Christians today tend to believe that the redemption which Christ secured is a mere life insurance policy for heaven. And, if it has anything to do with the here-and-now, it means we ought to have all our desires met for earthly peace and abundance. If that were true, both Jesus and Paul were miserable failures as godly people.

God, however, cares about our salvation, our wholeness and integrity as people on this earth. Yes, we have eternal life, yet that life has already begun, and we are to live into it now.

Christianity is a paradoxical faith. The way to gain your life is to lose it. The path to glory is through suffering.

This, my friends, means that we do not gain a good and blessed life by attempting to make everything in life go our way, without any difficulty. Instead, the good life comes by acknowledging the grit and grist of life. It is in the full acceptance of suffering, persecution, illness, death, and our own psychological infirmities that leads us into becoming who God wants us to be – and thus more open to what joy really is.

On the practical level, this means that our failures, our missed expectations, and our dashed hopes are very important pieces to our faith and it’s development. All of this is what awakens us to compassion – both for others and ourselves.

So then, Paul’s perspective on all the difficulties in his life is that they are significant spiritual incubators of faith for him. Paul accepted his sufferings and hardships – and more than that – he valued them for the ways they developed his faith in God and ability to minister to others.

As one old Rabbi once put it:

“There are many rooms in God’s castle. There is, however, one key that opens every room, and that key is a broken heart.”

Ba’al Shem Tov (1698-1760)

Sovereign God, let our love be genuine; help us to hate what is evil, and to hold on to what is good; and empower us to love one another with mutual affection. Strengthen our spirits so that we might serve our Lord Jesus. With you as our faith, we choose to rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; and persevere in prayer, by means of your blessed Holy Spirit. Amen.

Change and Stress (Acts 27:1-12)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment. We boarded a ship from Adramyttium about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia, and we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us.

The next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs. From there we put out to sea again and passed to the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us. When we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we landed at Myra in Lycia. There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board. We made slow headway for many days and had difficulty arriving off Cnidus. When the wind did not allow us to hold our course, we sailed to the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone. We moved along the coast with difficulty and came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea.

Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Day of Atonement. So Paul warned them, “Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also.” But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship. Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided that we should sail on, hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there. This was a harbor in Crete, facing both southwest and northwest. (New International Version)

Change is an emotionally charged word. For some, change is longed for. Those with adverse circumstances and difficult situations may look for change, and even for a miracle to turn their life around. Others want nothing to do with change; they’ve had a bad experience with it. Their fortunes were good, until something changed. And now they’re stressed out.

The majority of us have some sort of love/hate relationship with change – which is why there are people who look askance on Christianity and raise their eyebrow in skepticism toward Christians or religious folk in general. At the heart of Christianity is change, and change can be quite threatening toward a lot of people.

The Apostle Paul perhaps knew about change better than any Christian in history. He went from resisting change with violence, to embracing change so wholeheartedly that he became a victim of other’s violence. We meet him in today’s New Testament lesson as a prisoner being shipped from Palestine to Rome.

Paul’s message, at its core, is the good news of transformation because of Christ’ crucifixion and resurrection. It’s a message of radical and joyous change, of new life. And it’s also a scandalous message which impacts the surrounding culture.

Wherever the gospel of Jesus Christ went, people responded, and it influenced society to a significant degree. Throughout the Acts of the Apostles, political authorities, religious leaders, and cultural elites felt powerful shifts in their societies. Yes, a few became Christians themselves, but most resisted the change, and in some cases, in their irritated stress response, retaliated against believers.

The message of Christianity doesn’t yield to political forces that attempt to domesticate God; and that reality put many believers in the crosshairs of those forces.

Paul’s ability to keep up his witness to Christ, even while held prisoner under powerful Roman authority, comes from a theology that God is above all earthly rule and can make a way where there seems to be no way. In other words, no matter whether human institutions, empires, and structures either acquiesce or oppose the gospel makes no difference; God is able to bend any system and authority for divine purposes.

And this is precisely why the Apostle Paul appears calm, non-anxious, and able to encourage others in the center of a storm in which everyone might lose their lives. Put simply: Paul trusted God.

Yes, we have unwanted circumstances. Yet, if we are able to entrust ourselves to a good God (which may sound trite and easy, yet is anything but that) then we find that we’re also able to have a radical acceptance of the situation we’re presently in.

Faith and trust help us to accept difficult changes and respond to stress with resilience because faith is attentive to the following:

  • Knowing change is coming. Throughout the New Testament we are told that adversity and suffering are an integral part of the Christian life. Paul wasn’t caught by surprise with a storm. In his life, he expected the difficulties to come.

You have seen me experience physical abuse and ordeals in places such as Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I put up with all sorts of abuse, and the Lord rescued me from it all! In fact, anyone who wants to live a holy life in Christ Jesus will be harassed. (2 Timothy 3:11-12, CEB)

  • Paying attention to the feelings of self and others. Emotions are not a necessary evil. They play a very important role in helping us come to grips with what’s happening. Paul acknowledged the emotions of everyone on the ship, as well as his own. And this became the pathway to both acceptance and encouragement.

There’s a season for everything
    and a time for every matter under the heavens…

a time for crying and a time for laughing,
    a time for mourning and a time for dancing. (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4, CEB)

  • Becoming resilient. The ability to adapt, to find ways of surviving and thriving, is buoyed by a robust faith which can see with spiritual eyes and make decisions of faith, hope, and love.

“When I was born into this world,
    I was naked and had nothing.
When I die and leave this world,
    I will be naked and have nothing.
The Lord gives,
    and the Lord takes away.
Praise the name of the Lord!” (Job 1:21, ERV)

Stress and change can be hard and overwhelming. Yet, at the same time, it can be an opportunity to put faith into practice and be a blessing to the world.

Assist us, Lord, in living hopefully into the future. In the face of change, help us to set unnecessary fears aside and to recognize our potential for creative response. Help us to develop a reasonable optimism and to guard against our own defensiveness. Be with us as we remember and celebrate former times, and keep us from unreasonable yearning for them, which takes us from the work you have set before us in our time. All this we ask in the name of your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.