Well, we're going to have a conversation. which we do every single day anyway. But we're going to let people in on this conversation by doing it for the podcast that we've chosen to title struggling well. And the part of the big reason for that is because we think that's what most people's lives are. Jesus said it in John 16:33, "In this world, you will have trouble. Not if, but you will."
And there's the rub because even though as believers, we know it's in the word. I know for myself, I don't like the word struggle. I don't I want life to be pretty seamless. And when you say struggle well, that feels almost like an oxymoron to me. Like how do you mean I'm going to struggle well? I just don't want to struggle. So, can we do a podcast on no struggling 10 steps to struggle-free life? Can we try that?
We could do that. I'm not sure anybody would listen to it because they'd say it's not true.
No, they might. And then we could write a book and then do a seminar and it would be amazing.
It would be.
Yeah. All those 10 people that would come.
Yeah. We'll stick with struggling well. You've had this thought for a long time about emotions during the course of a day
being a blending of what?
Joy and sorrow all the time mingled.
Mingled together. Yeah. And it's true. I think about even this last week for us a good friend gets diagnosed with cancer.
another friend's marriage is coming to an end. In the midst of that somebody finds a job who was looking for a job and there's all these things that all wrap into a single day and it's hard sometimes in my mind to process that and at the end of the day to find hope and not only processing it but as a believer it feels like there's two roads. There's like a parallel road. There's the road of my life where the struggling occurs. Then there's what I know to be true of scripture and what Jesus calls us to what the father speaks of what the Holy Spirit does inside of us and that it there are times when they don't intersect or I feel like they're far apart from each other. And so I know that the struggle is real and we've lived long enough, you and I have, right,
that we've faced a lot of struggle, but the struggling well part feels foreign to do that together in light of you know, I read the Psalms and David is struggling like crazy and he calls out to God and Sometimes he rails at God or rails at his situation because he's struggling not so well and then you know then he goes off to say God you're my refuge and my strength and so like how did there seems to be like this big gap between struggling and well struggling well.
Yeah. And I think it's wrapped up for me it's wrapped up in where do you find your hope?
Yeah.
if you're going to find your hope in this world turning around if you're going to find your hope in the next election. If you're going to find your hope in anything in this world. I think you're going to be sorely disappointed. So the well piece for me is continuing to point my face towards Christ.
Yeah.
to point towards him as the one who knows better than I do and everything I want inside of me is wrapped up in pursuing him.
Yeah. There's I've been thinking a lot about struggle well and I've been thinking about why we get so surprised when difficulty comes and I feel like the question that most of us ask most of the time is why God are you letting this happen
right
and so there's that funky place and yet I look in scripture and I think that's consistent with other characters within scripture but it's it always makes me feel uneasy that I'm asking that question because I think am I asking the right question or is there a better question I should ask in the middle of struggle Yeah. I mean, I think it's a natural question, but I don't know that it's the best question.
Yeah.
I think the I think it's better to say, "Okay, God, what are you trying to teach me? What is it that needs to be refined in me?" Because so many times when those things happen, I mean, struggle comes from different locations and it certainly comes from living in this fallen world. And when something doesn't work in this fallen world, the why question is a natural, but it's all beyond my control. I can't control what's out there.
And there in lies the issue.
Well, sure.
Because we want control.
We all do. And when we realize that I think the more we can realize that we're not there's so many things that we're not in control of that then I have to turn to either my own devices which will come up short or I look to Christ. And we're back to the part of looking to him as how I struggle. Well,
the place in scripture that probably gives me the most comfort is when Jesus was in the garden and here he is fully man fully God knows what's ahead and in his human humanness he says you know is there another way
yeah
and that's I think another place where often times I feel guilty saying Lord I don't like the way you've done this surely there's another way and if you would just you know seek my advice I could give you a better path but when Jesus is agonizing in the garden like that and saying if this could pass. That place right there is what connects me to Jesus humanity, but also connects me to that place of obedience out of incredible absolute can't even describe love that he had for the father and for what he had been called to do
and add to that his love for us. Cuz I think that's perseverance. Again, it's not the dictionary definition, but to me, perseverance is when I'm at that place where he was in the garden when all of life was re reaching toward this climax. He thought of others more than he thought of himself.
Yeah.
So he looked Hebrews says he looked through the cross and beyond the cross to what wasn't on the other side. And he as much as he would he said if there's another way let's let it be that way. He ultimately goes no I am here for a reason and it's other centered
and he goes through the agony of the cross and everything else.
But you know where the rub comes again because you know I'm always looking for where the rub comes Yes.
is okay. So, he's on the he has to suffer the cross. And so, when I look at struggling,
I mean, yeah, he struggled in the garden. I just said that and I love it and I take great comfort from it. But between the garden and his death, there's a lot of stuff. There's a lot of agony, a lot of and when I look at that for myself or the people that I love, I think I don't want them to experience that. Is there not a way that we can get from obedience to, you know, resurrection without having to go through all of that because it's scary. And, you know, I think a lot of times when as you and I meet with Christian young men and women and people of all ilk is that struggle of they're terrified of that in between place
and I get it.
Yeah. And the truth of the matter is I don't think you can find the ultimate hope that scripture talks about by disconnecting eternity from our life here.
Yeah,
we're not we are not going to get everything that we're promised here on this earth. It will not happen until eternity in the new heaven and the new earth and God makes everything new again. and that's hard to wrestle with, but I've got to keep those anchor points of my faith in the midst of the struggle that I go through.
And I believe even though I look for the rough places, I believe that according to his word that between the garden and resurrection is where he gives us everything that we need to survive. I mean faith is not just hope in the unseen. It is that but faith is something so intangible but it gives us the ability to go day by day by day through the difficult stuff. He gives us courage. He gives us he shows us mercy. he the spirit teaches us on how to navigate these times. And so I think what you and I hope to do is to be able to be honest and walk through these difficult sometimes dark nights of the soul and encourage people along the way.
And we hope you'll join us again for more of this conversation that we're going to have on Struggling Well.