Well, good morning and welcome to another podcast of Struggling Well. after plus episodes of week,
which I wish I was 60 plus.
I know you do, but let me finish.
Oh, sorry. We're back.
After 60 plus episodes, we missed a week last week. And we missed a week because life finally caught up in some ways that made it impossible for us to record. And so we'll talk about that.
We will talk about that a little bit. it is good to be back here with Jimmy and Tim who does his excellent job of putting this together so that you can hear it. as Jimmy said, life caught up with us and I constantly find myself giggling over the title of our podcast, Struggling Well. I think God has such a sense of humor when he puts something on your heart and you think, "Oh, that's snappy. We'll go with Struggling Well," which has been something that Jimmy has done for decades. as he pastored his the church at Charlotte. and it's been something that we have definitely been interested in and wondered about for many many years. And but when God takes something that he gives you and he begins to expand on it is when it gets interesting. And you all know that it's been a bit of a struggle since probably the fall, early fall for us and our extended family. And as is common And I think what we should expect is God's in effect, I felt like this past week and continuing on is saying it's we're going to go deeper. I want you to know me more deeply. I want you to see who I am. Not just in the times that feel easy to you or even the times that feel a little rough to you, but I want you to know who I am. So this past week, my body kind of gave out on me in ways I had never ever experienced before and I ended up in the hospital. Now, this may be TMI and I say too bad. we are doing what we've done for decades when Jimmy pasured. we're not trying to spill all our stuff out or air all our dirty laundry, but why not share where our hearts are and you can do what you want with any details. It doesn't matter to me. I'm we're not woke enough to worry about any of that stuff and I don't even know what that word means. All I know is that woke used to mean she awoke, but we're beyond that. So, Jimmy, why don't you fill in some gaps here?
Yeah, I think that, as Suzi said, struggling well, I know it probably sounds like a little piffy statement. but it really is how I see life, how I view life, and, what I think God's word says. So, for example, I know we've used this passage before, but in Isaiah 43, God says when you pass through the waters when you walk through fire, not if but when. And that to me is an indication that life gets hard and life is difficult. But the other parts of those verses in Isaiah 43 are this. God says, "I'll be with you. I will be with you. Fear not, for I am with you." And then he goes on to this powerful description of how he sees us. we're precious in his eyes, honored, and he loves us. And so that's what this past week has been a combination of. it's been a hard week to wait on doctors, to wait on test results, and we still don't have all the answers to why Sus's body reacted the way it did and put her in a hospital for a week. but I do know this that what is true as well as the difficulties, what is true as well as is struggling is the fact that God promises he's with us and he loves us and he's not he's the one person that wasn't surprised at last week.
No,
you were. I was. People were. He's not.
You know, you know what else just hit me while you were talking is the week between Christmas and New Year's, we had some time off and visited with some friends. We ended up watching on what was it, the Sunday before New Year's, a pastor online.
one of the other couples knew of this pastor and thought he was pretty good. And so since we weren't around our churches, we decided to listen to this pastor. And he we listened to his first series, his first sermon on Ecclesiastes. And you know, I just thought, "Oh, this is going to be great." I've really enjoyed him. An Irish young man hit with a great sense of humor and a smile that was captivating from the very onset. But he was talking to about the reason why I bring this up is because not only is God present in our struggles, but he prepares us. I don't think we understand that he is preparing us when we hear something. Just like I said before, we named this podcast struggling well, not even understanding what God was going to do with that phrase. So, as we are listening to this pastor talk about Ecclesiastes, the first chapter, and it and it's such a great chapter. chapter if you get to read it. just hang there in Ecclesiastes because you're going to think when you read it, you're going to go, "Oh, this is good news. Maybe I'll move on to Job after this one." But he talks about that the goal of Ecclesiastes, and this is his material, and if I could remember his name, but this is not my material at all. He says, "The goal of Ecclesiastes is to dismantle and deconstruct the counterfeits the world offers for us to seek the real thing." And so, as we were going through this week and with fear and pain and confusion and just you know not understanding what was happening. It's a funny thing when your body like takes over. You think you're all that in a bag of chips that you're in control of everything. Huh. Exercise on. Go for it. Do whatever you need to take. Eat your, you know, eat your trees, your green stuff. I don't care. But if you think that you're going to control your body, Yeah, call me. Anyway, Ecclesiastes says vanity of vanities that everything is smoke of vapor and the Hebrew word is the word he and that means everything is that we hold on to is going to vanish. And so even in this past week when my symptoms came became extreme realized that my idea of health vanished.
Yeah. And it, you know, I thought about the other side of this week. as our ministry tandem was getting started and launching into this year, this past week, the same week that Suzi ended up in the hospital was actually for us a pretty full week of things that we were set to do.
and we had to cancel them.
Yeah.
And that's when I kind of go, okay, God, are you aware of the fact that we had things planned this week?
He did not see the calendar on our iPhones.
No, he did not see that. But it was one of those things where either you fight against him or you go, "No, there's a bigger story that's being told and I want to be aware of the fact that God may be doing something with my life that's more important than even I realized."
And here's the thing, we may have mentioned this a couple of weeks ago and forgive repetition, but we look at tough times as a season that we want to be over with,
right?
And I believe as I look at scripture and I look at the lives of people in scripture and as I view my own life that the seasons of relief are really seasons and that life because we live in this fallen world is the long haul. And so the question that we're to ponder in the next few podcasts is where do you want your head and your heart to be when nothing changes in your life? And whether it be you having an illness or u being in a rough marriage or having a terrible job or a child with a terminal illness or a chronic illness or, you know, poor finances, whatever it may be, that doesn't ever or change. What do you want to do? Who do you want to be? And how do you want to see God?
Yeah. And that last thing you said, Suzi, is the part that strikes me is how do you want to view God? And what are the promises that he has made in his word that are ironclad promises? They're allin promises. Well, one of those we talked about today is the promise that he is with us, never going to leave us. Hebrews says, "I'll never believe you and never forsake you. So the themes from the Old Testament that we've talked about, from Isaiah and from other places carry through into the New Testament because he's still the same God. And so I want to know what are the what become the promises that I can absolutely guarantee my life on. And the fact that he'll never leave me or forsake me is one of those. And so those are the anchor points that I want to drive deep into the rock of who he is and go, "Okay, Lord. In the midst of the struggles of this world, in the midst of the times that you take me through deep waters, in the midst of the times you take me through fire, I will hold on to the fact that you love me and you're with me and that never changes. We'll come back to this idea and talk about it more next week. Thanks for listening.