Trials and Tribulation

There are some people who think that becoming a Christian is a piece of cake. The way some people figure it, since God is Love and Christians are his children, they must have it made in the shade.

Unfortunately, it’s not true. Actually, Jesus tells us the exact opposite. He says that we will be beaten, imprisoned, mocked. He tells us that we are going to have to carry our cross. And that doesn’t mean that things will get hard – remember what Jesus meant when he said he was going to have to carry his cross: it meant he was going to be tortured and killed. Calling that “hard” is a bit of an understatement.

So why is that? Why does God cause us to go through these hard times? Because He needs us to grow. He needs us to become better than we already are, to learn things we don’t quite understand right now.

Think about your best lessons. Didn’t they come when you had to deal with a difficult circumstance or problem that you had to solve? When you learned to ride a bicycle, didn’t you fall a couple of times before you figured out how to stay up? When you learned to swim, didn't you swallow some water? The fact is, we learn best when we have to struggle. Maybe it’s because we don’t want to ever do that again.

The reality is that God is using these difficult times to prepare you. “What!?” you’re thinking, “I have to have tough times to be prepared?” Well, yes…and no. When we go through these things, they might be considered difficult, but that is only because that is the way we look at it. The most successful men have always looked at what we might call difficult times as challenges. These times are like games to them. They are like crossword puzzle junkies with a New York Times. They see something challenging, something different, something that they can overcome, something that will make them better. Why does the mountain climber climb the mountain? Because it’s there. What does that mean? It means that to them, it’s not about fear or danger or logic – it’s about overcoming a challenge and growing from it.

You see, we view our trials and tribulations as just that – trials and tribulations. What we need to do is stop thinking like that and instead turn our thinking around 180-degrees. When we have these situations, we tend to categorize them. We think, “This is a good thing” or “This is going to hurt” or “This is not going to be fun”. Once we classify something, we can react to it in a predictable way. But what we really need to do is think like Edison, who said "No, I'm not discouraged because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward." after several hundred attempts at inventing the light bulb. By thinking in our normal ways, we allow our trials and tribulations to overcome us. But by looking at these from a different light, we allow them to be stepping stones for us to become better people.

The Bible tells us to look at our trials and tribulations in a different light. While we might normally think negatively in these situations, James 1:2-4 tells us to, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Let’s not get depressed or stressed by our trials, but instead, let’s consider it pure joy! Why? Because this trial we’re going through finishes the work – it completes us. Don’t we want to be complete? Then we need to learn the lessons that our trial is teaching us. Without that knowledge, we are not complete.

These trials also make us more like Jesus. Now I don’t know if you believe like I do, that Jesus is God, that he came down from heaven to become like you and me and that he died on the cross to save my eternal soul from going to hell. But even if you don’t, there isn’t a person in the world who doesn’t agree that Jesus was a great man and that we would do well to be like him. Well, our trials help us to do just that! Romans 8:28-29 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” God takes all these trials that we’re going through and works them for the good – at least for those who love him. Why? Because he wants us to be more like his Son! So God takes our trials and makes them for good so that we can be like Christ.

What we’re seeing here, is that we need not to see our trials as negative, but see them as learning opportunities. We need to stop categorizing the things that happen to us, but instead, recognize that regardless of the category we might want to stick them in, we need to look at them from a different angle.

So as a quick exercise, let’s do some brainstorming. This might take a while for us to get because it forces us to think outside our normal box, but that’s the point! Hopefully, as we continue thinking this way, it will become easier to think like Christ.

Name five good things about getting a speeding ticket.

Name five good things about owing money to the IRS.

Name five good things about losing your job.

Now normally, we would have looked at these as negative, but we can see that really, there can be good things that can come out of them. If we look at the trials in our lives as stepping stones on our road to becoming better people, then we remove the stress that would normally come with these situations. We remove the pain and difficulty that normally accompanies these things. Instead, we are challenged to grow and to mature and to become complete.

God is preparing you right now through your trials and tribulations. Joseph didn’t know that God was preparing him when he was sent into slavery by his brothers and into prison by Potiphar – but God was preparing him to become a great leader. Moses didn’t know that God was preparing him to become the Shepherd of Israel when he sent him into the desert for forty years to care for sheep instead of being the prince of the greatest nation of his day. God is preparing you right now to do His work.

Now, recognize that sometimes, things happen that just make no sense to us and there is no learning or growth. There is only pain and suffering…sometimes even death. How do we view that? We recognize that we don’t know everything in this world. But there is coming a time that we will have a clearer picture of what God is doing. 1 Corinthians 13:12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. Even as things here on earth seem desperate, we need to recognize that there is coming a time when God is going to create all things new. Revelation 21:4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. We will leave this world and enter into the world that Jesus has prepared for us! Psalms 23:6b and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

It’s your choice – you can keep yourself in the center of your life, viewing and categorizing the things that happen to you as bad, painful, difficult. Or you can decide to let God be the center of your life and view everything that happens to you as a stepping stone to becoming the kind of person God wants you to be.

Send mail to david@TheArkNY.org with questions about the church or comments about this site.
Last modified: February 26, 2006