Well, good day. Welcome to Struggling Well, another podcast of our year-long Now, it's been a year. We started this the 1st of November a year ago. So, we're coming up on a year that we've been doing this.
Happy anniversary, Jenny and Tim.
That's right. Yes.
And we're still at our kitchen table, which is a great place to be.
We are. Our sound system has been upgraded. Not. And but we're happy. We're still doing what we want to do.
We're enjoying it. And so, we invite you into just another one of our conversations that happen every single day. And for the last year, we've recorded some of those and put them out. And again, this is all part of our ministry, Tandemspirituality. and you can find more find out more about Tandem by going online to the website and learning more about us.
There you go. Thank you.
There you go.
we're going to go back to the themes probably haven't been that broadly different, but it's themes that have been running through our life and threading through our world. And so, If you go into God's word, you find over and over again writers of the scripture who ask this question, how long? When they're in the midst of difficult times, in their midst of difficulties, they ask the question, how long? For me, I look at Psalm 74 and it's one of the Psalms evasive. And here's the question. How long, oh God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever? Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand. That's just one example. I know you have some.
The reason why we're still hanging out here in the suffering, struggling well place is, as we've told you in the last few weeks, what our family is in the middle of right now is something that is long. It will be a long-term situation. And so, we've been giving a lot of thought to that idea of how to struggle well for a long period of time. Because most of us would like our struggle to be over quickly. I mean, of course we would. I you know, if I have pain, I want it to be done quickly. I want it to be taken care of. And the pain that we experience in our hearts, in our minds, some of them don't go away. we have a dear friend, she and her husband who we love dearly, and they have a son who we also love who has will be with them forever. due to where he's at in his I'm going to call them abilities, special abilities. And for them, it's a long-term forever type of situation that God has placed them in with this son who is an amazing young man, but also has daily struggles. And so, when there's that chronic ongoing wrestling and struggling to keep your head above water, how do we do that? And again, we're not here to give you five steps, 10 steps, not even a step as to how you do that, but we want to encourage you to intercede for others, but also to ask God the hard questions because the psalmist did. And the psalm that I love is Psalm 13 where David says, "How long, oh Lord, will you forget me forever?" And isn't that true of most of us when we're in the middle of struggle or suffering, whether it be illness, financial loss, marital issues, what whatever it might be, a child with chronic illness, whatever. We wonder if God has forgotten us. He goes on to say, "How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?" verse two, when it says, "How long must I take counsel in my soul?" That one has really struck me as of late, and that is that in the midst of the difficult time that we're in right now, And the word difficult seems pretty benign in comparison to what my heart has been feeling. But I find that I take counsel in my own brain, in my own heart, and it really gets me nowhere. I wind around and around and try to make sense of what is happening in our world at large and in our smaller world as a family. And it takes me nowhere. But David goes on to say, Consider and answer me, oh Lord, my Lord. Light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemies say, I have prevailed over him. And verse five, but I have trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me.
Yeah. And it's that again I don't it's not obviously not unique to our culture asking the question how long because you read a psalm of David. I read a psalm of Bas. And there are many other places we could look in scripture to raise that question, but I think it's intensified in our culture today cuz we're about instant everything. and we go one of the reasons I think drive-thru restaurants and fast food restaurants have made such a dent in our culture is because I can go through a line and I can get something to put in my stomach whenever I want. And if I have to wait in that line. I'm like upset because it's taken so long. you know, and we don't understand God's timing. one of my favorite lines is from an a Dutch theologian, Peter Cree, and I probably used it before on this broadcast is life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved. Well, if it's if that's true, and I believe it is, then the mystery is in God's timing. And that brings the question, how long into play.
It's just like when Jesus came to this earth, it says that in the fullness of time, God sent his son.
What made that the fullness of time? Because I would look at it today and go, "Well, if Jesus came now, he'd have social media to broadcast this message, not 12 guys who were untrained guys who just
st hung with him."
So, it really comes down to what we do in that long time, Suzi. I think and that's not It's not where I shine. I don't typically shine in long prolonged I need an answer. I want it now.
You know, something that has surfaced in my life which I am not proud of or happy about is that when I am hurting or when someone has hurt someone that I love, my flesh just comes flying up to the surface. I mean, it really does. And I'm not proud of that, but I am like someone told me this just last night. like a mama bear and you touch my family, you touch my loved ones, my friends, my, you know, and I can just come out. it's not pretty. Let me just say that. And I know that my flesh, especially when I'm hurting, tends to rise up because my flesh says to me, "You deserve relief."
Yeah. And it's that it's a it puts you in it puts us all in that odd space because We do defend our loved ones. We want to stand, you know, I don't want a friend who is with me when things are going well, but as soon as it gets difficult and hard, they walk away. And we've experienced that. We both have experienced that. So, I love it when somebody stands with me no matter what.
But I also have to be careful with in my ultimate reaction that I'm not discounting that God's at work.
Maybe that's what it is. I can I can defend, I can fight for, I can stand with. I don't want to deny that God's at work. And that's where the battle comes in my heart is that there's I think there's a place in my flesh that says what the serpent said to Eve. Really? Really? Did God say that?
It's like that place comes up where I find myself going, "Okay, Lord, this is a hard spot. I'm tired. I'm over this." And then I hear that phrase, really? Did God say he was going to rescue you and that he loves you and has compassion and mercy on you and will I mean we my flesh m makes questions
questions and then that leads to and correct me if I'm wrong with this, but it leads to I'll take care of this myself. I don't need God to take care of this. I'll take care of it. And that's when I've moved away from I what I believe is struggling well cuz struggling well says, "I'm going to trust you no matter what."
And that's not always the longer it goes on, the harder that becomes, I believe.
Yeah.
We imagine there are those of you that are listening that are going through some difficulty. We know from some of the conversations we've had, some texts we've received that there are those of you that are hurting big time. And we wish that we had a solution for you. But the true solution comes in God's word and knowing Christ more. more deeply of pouring out our hearts to him and believing that he hears our cries. He hears our lament and he will answer in his timing so that it will glorify him and be for the good for that went up.
No,
Romans 8:28. Help me.
Um,
all things work together for good for those that love God and are called according to his purpose. Yeah. Amen, sister.
You're welcome.
Well, There. There you have it. And I don't know any how I can add anything more to that. So, we're just going to wrap it up for this week. Thanks for listening and we hope you'll be back again next week.
Thank you.