Well, welcome back to another podcast of Struggling Well, we come to you from Studio A, which is our kitchen. kitchen table. And so the noise you hear in the background is the landscape people in our neighborhood who are out trimming bushes on this day. And if you hear that, that's what it is. And
actually, it's Jimmy is trimming his toenails.
Oh my gosh.
I'm kidding.
Anyway, I this is the day that we're everybody's supposed to say happy new year. And
you know, it's the beginning of a new year. I don't know if it's a happy day. I don't know for your life if things are in that season where you would say happy new year and really mean it or whether you would say happy new year cuz it's the obligatory thing to say. But that's not the way this year is starting out for you.
It's a funny thing that we celebrate the turning of a year and we get a new year with a new number which re is really as I get older I mean it'll take me about until July to start writing 2025 cuz I'll still be writing 2024. Every now and then I write 2020, which scares me. I think, oh boy, it's happening. But a new year, there's a lot of expectation with the word new year.
Yeah.
what are some of the expectations out there?
Well, I think that for many people it would be that, in this new year, it'll be a better year than the past year. Maybe better for them means better health. or maybe better means better employment situation or better relationships with people. it's kind of like I can start fresh and new. But the truth is it's not starting fresh and new. It's a continuation of what my life has been. And you know it's but I think those are expectations people have. I
I think another funny phenomena that occurs is that people decide that this year I'm going to get healthy and this is nothing new. You all know this. And so, gym memberships and workout places and workout videos and workout everything. The desire to be a new have a new body and to get going with your exercise, it just increases in January. Now, I don't know what the fallout rate is. based on my life, it would be January 15th, but it People are like, "Yeah, I'm going to sign up at the gym." And they get, you know, from the Y to the all the different membership places that you can go to. They get deluge with people that want to start exercising.
Yeah. And it doesn't last typically. And you know, it's just a it's an interesting phenomenon. And I don't think it's just in our country. I think it's around the world that people view the new year, the start of something new as meaning change will come to my life.
And that may happen. We certainly can't predict, but chances are that whatever it was or whatever things were that were bothering you or that you struggled with are going to be present in 2025. The day, you know, January 1st doesn't cut off everything that happened in 2024. So, as we face the changing of the calendar, the changing of time, struggle may follow you. More than likely, it will. So, How will you in this new year? What will you do a little differently? Or how will you face this struggle in this year? if you think in terms of I have another chance, maybe that's what the new year means, another chance to do something better. How will you how will you face this struggle that has been with you for a while as you enter 2025?
Yeah. And I think one of the realities, Suzi, you and I have talked about this that struggle many times will bring is we can tend to isolate ourselves. Isolation becomes a huge problem with struggling because whether it's the embarrassment or shame or whatever of the struggle we're going through, we tend to not reach out to others in that time frame.
And we sometimes we don't even express that to God and we struggle
we don't tell him the truth although he knows the truth. We don't tell others the truth. And because of that isolation occurs and I can testify to that because this year has been hard. you know that sounds like a familiar repeated thing that we probably said a lot but it's been a challenging 18 months for sure. and that's more than a year but where I tend to go is because the struggle feels relentless sometimes. I just think, are people sick of it? Is God sick of it? Is he wondering why I don't get a grip on myself? are my friends and my family going, you know, like, Suzi, get a hold of this. Move on. And so, the tendency that I've wrestled against is that a pulling away
and thinking that, you know, it's too much. I you know, I'm the bad news bears. I don't want people don't want to hear all this stuff. And yet, that's I think that falls right into what the enemy wants to do to the body of Christ, which is divide us and isolate us and break community apart.
Yeah. And it's you know, it's the whole sense of what's the word I want? the isolation I is an impact on the way in which God designed us and made us for community,
right?
And we don't into that. We don't lean into that. And I'll begin with you said this the isolation's not just with others, but it's with God. And that's where I think we are learning I and I because I put that present tense, not that we've learned it. We're learning the value of lament.
Yeah.
In our prayers, you know, the Psalms are filled with lament, personal lament, corporate lament, but it's the whole sense of God's people crying out to him and expressing the struggle that they're going through. And when I stop doing that, I think I've isolated myself from the God who longs to be the one who brings a sense of hope in the midst of it all.
Just a little aside, is that buzzing getting to you? Cuz it's starting to make me feel a little crazy, which I borderline on that anyway, but this it's like But I want to I want to read something to you from Psalm 6. I'm back in the Psalms again. some of you know that I for about two years I studied the Psalms back oh gosh four years ago I guess it was and I have been drawn back to the Psalms again. I'm doing it this time in the New King James Version with a little devotional from Charles Haden Spurgeon because I so admire his writings and his walk with the Lord and he was just your ordinary man. We've spoken about that before but he was pretty brilliant but he also struggled right
he struggled with depression. He struggled with there were times he couldn't preach. but what I wanted to read was parts of Psalm 6 because I want to encourage you that, if your struggle has followed you into 2025 and you are tending to pull away from people, pull away from God because it feels like you're too much. What's wrong with you? I want you to hear the words of David. I love David's character in scripture because he's raw. He's honest. honest. he's he sins. He's tempted just like we are. and in Psalm 6, he really calls out to God and he says, "Oh Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor chasen me in your hot displeasure." And here comes the part that just resonates with me. Have mercy on me, oh Lord, for I am weak. Oh Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled, but you, oh Lord, and then there's a pause. How long Deliver me, Lord. Save me for your mercy's sake. I'm weary with groaning. My eyes waste away because of grief. But then he says, "But the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping." And we want to encourage you on this New Year's Day or the days that follow to remember what the truth is in the midst of your struggle as we need to remember the truth. And that is that when you are in that place and you call out to God, he does hear you. And he wants to pour his mercies on you. He knows that you're weak. He knows that your bones are tired and you are soulwary. But he wants to let you know that he is there. He is present with you, in front of you, alongside of you, and behind you.
Yeah. And as you come to that realization, then the realization of how we as the body of Christ can be involved in one another's lives in the midst of the struggle. again, verses we've used before in previous podcasts, but they're they resonate still today for me and for Suzi in 2 Corinthians when Paul says this in the first chapter, we do not want you to be unaware, brothers. And then he goes on to talk about the afflictions, the troubles, and the things to the point he said, we despared even of life itself. And why was he doing that? Well, he wanted them to be involved. He wanted them to be aware. And he goes on in verse 11 of that first chapter to say, you also must help us by prayer. And you know there are times when we see others going through struggle when they do let us in and we go I don't know what I can do. I don't know how to help them in that. Well, here's what I would say is what Paul said. You pray. You petition God. You intercede on their behalf and you pray and you bring them to the Lord. And so that sense of isolation that so oftentimes is there for us when we're in the midst of struggle first and foremost to the Lord, second of all to one another. is one that we can overcome by letting people know what's going on in our world.
We're so glad that you come and you join us. But before we really get into 2025, Jimmy and I want to thank Tim Briggs for being our steadfast friend, our producer, our sound man, our encouragement. He prays for us. he has wise things to say. He's a young man, but he's very very very wise and we're just so thankful for him. we get to sit with him, you know, once every few weeks and he is kind enough to share his heart with us and always ask for us to share our heart with him. So Tim Briggs, we love you.
Yeah. And even though he is a young man, he is a year older because we're now in 2025.
Have a great week.