Hello and welcome to another episode of Struggling Well. we've had a comment recently from a friend that said, "Every now and then Jimmy lets me do the intro." And today's one of those days, and I'm so honored, babe, to be able to have this opportunity. That's I'm joking there. Kind of sort of, but not really. But, you all know that the one who helps put this together is our very dear and important friend to us, Tim Briggs. And as we begin every week that we record the podcast, the weeks that we do this, we also have discussion beforehand and afterwards and we have been so honored to hear some of Tim's heart as we are dealing with various topics and we so appreciate that. He's a really good guy. He's super young like he could be my baby but it's crazy how young he is. But we've been talking a lot about suffering and a lot about what God's word says. And one of the passages that Tim has been chewing on and wrestling has been in Romans five, that whole path of what endurance produces, etc. So, Tim, we're gonna ask you why that's a struggle for you and why do you think the order is the way it is?
Yeah, Jimmy, maybe you could read that.
Yeah, I'm just going to set it up. and the other thing I'll say because I you Suzi, you're usually the one that does an aside. Well, I'm going to do an aside this week. I know. you know how some shows have their outtakes of their bloopers? their best moments. We don't do those outtakes because they're actually in what we produce. So there you have it. All right. Romans 5 in verse three it says not only that but rejoice we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. So that's that section of Romans. five, Tim, that we want to talk about.
Yeah. You know, I brought that to you guys because you're the answer people when I have questions. You're the people I come to for answers. and that order is surprising to me
because you would think when suffering comes that immediately you would cling to and look to the hope that you have.
Mhm.
Which would then give you the endurance to get through it and would ultimately form your character.
But that's not the order. the order is opposite. Suffering comes and then you endure and then character and then hope. And I'm just wondering aloud why that is. I don't know why that is. I do wonder if it has something to do with just the human experience, right? we were talking about this earlier. it's not as if we're robots with programming in the sense that we live in a broken world. Suffering comes, but then we go, well, the program says that immediately I just move on in hope and there's no there's no room or space there to struggle. That's not what happens. Part of being a human is that you're meant to sit with it and you're meant to wrestle with it and you're meant to ask questions and you're meant to actually lament. You're meant to bring these things to God which then if that's the case suffering would lead to that endurance that kind of wrestling that struggling and character and then ultimately at the end you would go where the most of the psalms go that in the midst of struggle pain suffering that they close with hope. in the midst of all of this, yes, I still believe God is good. I still believe that he's up to something good. He's not surprised by what's happening. Somehow, he's turning all of these terrible things into something beautiful. He's weaving something here together. But it is an interesting order. I wonder what you guys make of all of that.
Yeah, I think Tim and it is an interesting order. I hear that word endurance that produces character and It to me is a another way of talking about the Christian life is a journey. It's a lifelong journey and it's a marathon. It's not a sprint. And so endurance gives me the sense that I there will be things revealed as I'm walking with Christ for years maybe. and that's going to shape my character of how I respond to things, how I respond to people. And at the end of it all is the hope that I have because of what Christ has done in me. I think the for a person who's brand new in the faith, yes, there's hope because of what Christ has done, but it has not been formed and shaped through the sufferings of life that in a way that it will be at the end of that. And that's where the endurance piece to me leads the way. I
I love words and I love the definition of words and I looked up the word endurance and it says being in a difficult process or situ ation without giving way. So, is that why that has to come first? Because if I don't know, I'm just going off the top of my head here. If the way was easy, then I wouldn't really see my need to hope in anything other than, well, that was easy. But endurance, it's that idea of that I'm staying in there. I'm not giving way. I am tolerating. I'm bearing I'm staying in there. And so that when we're at that place where we're giving in, not giving in, we're bearing something, it does chisel out who we are.
Yeah.
the person that I am now in comparison to who I was, the pain either physically or relationally that I suffer now, I'm different. If you I'm looking at thinking in my head about somebody chiseling in wood. I hope that I'm more chiseled.
That would sound like I was working out, which I don't. You know, you all know that how I feel about exercise.
Jimmy, you mentioned something earlier off microphone about the Psalms and how they're typically short to read, but there's a whole journey that takes place there. Talk about that.
Yeah, I think it's to me it's it is the picture of endurance, whether it's a psalm of David or of Asaf or any of the other psalmist. with the exception of the 119th Psalm, we can read through most Psalms in less than 3 minutes, I would say. and so in the progression of particularly the Psalms of Lament, the progression goes from what the psalmist is lamenting about life and then as he journeys, he comes to the end of it and he has the hope that he has in God. And I think the mistake is now maybe they actually wrote them in that brief period of time, but what they're communicating did not take place within that same span. It was over a much longer span. like the 77th Psalm when As says, "I would if I spoke of you, I would have betrayed you. I would have betrayed you were." And about halfway through, he goes, "Till I entered the sanctuary of God."
Well, well, what time passed there? And I think that in those psalms of lament in particular, we see the endurance of a psalmist that has produced character in his life. life that ultimately ends in hope that won't disappoint as he says in Romans. So I think the endurance piece gives a picture of the walking with God for a period of time through sufferings and the character of the individual gets shaped my character gets shaped through that and at the end I have nowhere else to go other than to put my hope in God and it's a hope that won't disappoint
and I think that we live in the a day age today where people understand suffering peace. They don't like it and I don't know that anybody ever likes it. But it's working to give me as I endure it, it gives me my character which ultimately find my hope placed in God as opposed to anything else in the world. and so I think there's a different words that the psalmist use than that Paul uses and James talks about it too when you count it joy when you encounter trials of various kinds, knowing that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. That same idea that there's a solidness there that is mine because of what I've gone through and ultimately I put my hope in God.
Again, with words, if endurance then is something that I bear and it changes me, then the word character is I become distinctive in a way because of what I've had to endure.
Yeah.
About a year ago, I don't think I've even told you this, babe. I started on my computer a lament and it I just entitled it Dear Lord. And I've been writing on it off and on for the last maybe year and a half. And it reminds me of what you just said when we look at the lament u when we look at Job's life, etc. we think it's, you know, in this small little sound bite. And as I've been writing in that and I look over it, I've I see how he's given me the ability to door, endure, and then there has been character developed, but it's ongoing. So, it's not like a I mean, you might could read that in 5 seconds or less, but it is an ongoing thing that is unfolding every day.
Yeah. And I think Jesus's life is a great life picture of one who endured through suffering and he endured all the way to the cross. And yet towards the very end in the garden, we know that he was struggling cuz He said, "Father, if there's any way that this cup can pass, I that's what I want, but not my will, but your will be done." And so, right up to the very end, he is enduring in the suffering and he did it for a purpose, which was that the hope was placed in what the father had designed and the trinity had designed of salvation for all of us because of what he endured.
so those are just a few thoughts.
I'll mention One last thing here. One of the most significant verses to me recently has been from the Psalms. Those of us who sew with tears will reap with joy.
And that again highlights that process that journey that here's this agricultural metaphor. there's going to be pain, there's going to be suffering. You're sewing this and you're not going to see that crop immediately weeks, months before you see the reaping with joy and that hope is secure of course in the gospel. But living this side of heaven in a broken world, we will be sitting in seasons of suffering.
But God's at work.
Yeah. And maybe you can look at the struggles and the sufferings that you go through with a little bit different light. Not that they're ever going to be pleasant, but can you see that God is up to something in the bigger picture? He's doing in your life. He's using those difficult times to build character in you and build a hope that's found in him. Have a great week. Thanks for joining us. To learn more about the Struggling Well podcast, visit tandemspirituality. com.