Welcome back again to another podcast of Struggling Well. And as you listen to this and as we record this in the last few days there have been huge escalations of the unrest in the Middle East particularly revolving around Iran and the Gulf state nations that are there and the nation of Israel and so we don't want to be tonedeaf
to what's going on in our world and so we would just ask you to pray we'd ask you to pray for the people and the citizens of that of those nations for the leaders that there would be peace. I know it's a big request, but we do serve the God of peace and would God move in a way in the hearts of leaders that would help bring about that?
You know, when things like this happen in the Middle East in particular, there is often a rush to determine the signs to see you know, is Jesus coming back soon? And we don't know because only the father knows. And in our rush to do that and try to figure out and navigate through the unease in the Middle East, we can end up strategizing so much and navigating so hard that we lose the plot which is the gospel and we can get really afraid of what is happening and you know it's pretty scary if we lived in the Middle East right now and often times it seems like in the Middle East they do live with a lot of terror and a lot of corruption in their lives. but I don't want us to lose the story which is the story of Jesus of God's love for his people from the beginning of time when he chose the nation of Israel as the story the theater so to say or the example of his love for people and his desire to redeem us. I don't want us to lose that in the midst of wondering what's happening and is this part of the end times? it. I was reading this morning that if it is the end times, and I don't know if it is or not, we should be prepared. And so, preparation is not so much storing canned goods in your bomb shelter. Preparation is of the heart.
Yeah. And it's the ways in which we all face fear. Fear is a reality for everybody in our lives. And how we face that, how we deal with that and can we achieve a sense of being at peace with life in the way it is. It doesn't mean we become complacent. It just means I find myself putting my trust in the one who is still on his throne in that in between space between knowing what's coming and what's happening right now. And so again, just as a reminder for all of us to be praying, praying for the church in Iran and in those nations that we don't necessarily think of churches being there, but there are and believers are there and just being praying for that in this time. So with that, we're going to switch gears a little bit and talk some about Lent.
Go for it.
Which is it's funny. I never understood Lent. growing up in a Baptist church, it was not something that we talked about or we celebrated. We certainly didn't celebrate Ash Wednesday, which is the beginning of Lent. that was for my Catholic buddies
and me.
And you grew up Catholic. And so if you had ashes on your forehead, it meant you were Catholic. And so I thought Lent was a Catholic thing. I didn't think it was a biblical thing. And yet there's a sense in which it's a time of preparation. It mirrors the 40 days that Jesus spent in the desert before he entered into his ministry. And there's a lot to be learned in that. And I have just come recently to more fully understand that there's something there for me in Lent. And One of my favorite authors is a man by the name of Henry Nen who's since passed away and Nan talks about this in his little book the way of the heart. He talks about how compassion is the fruit of solitude and the basis for all ministry. And that's one of the areas that Lent kind of leads us to the idea of solitude and silence. but he says this, let's not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to the place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken. But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering. What we desire most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure for it. And so that whole idea of solitude that leads to compassion which leads to entering into the lives of other people
and also I've been thinking on a flip side just on us as personally the picture that comes to my mind when I think of s suffering and struggling and I'm sure there are people out there that are listening to us like oh guys get through it get over it the struggling well stuff. Come on let's get some happiness and light. Our happiness and our joy comes from who we are in Christ not our necessarily our circumstances. But when during the period of Lent we are more vulnerable or hopefully the position of our heart is that we're more vulnerable and open to hear from God as we look at the story of Jesus in the wilderness. And I don't know of anyone that enjoys wilderness living. Now, the desert fathers and mothers, they went to the wilderness to have time to think and pray and let God speak because there were no distractions. But the problem for us is it is hard to get away and it's hard for us sometimes to even identify what's going on inside of us because we are terrified of the wilderness. You have thoughts? I see something burning.
No. No. And that's the idea of this whole idea of solitude. I don't I don't do solitude well. And I think that it's hard for me sometimes to put away, as you just said it, Suzi, the distractions of my world because they're always with me. And some of it's by by choice. Some of it's by just the pace of life that we live even though we're sort of retired.
makes us sound ancient.
Well, we are ancient of days.
Speak for yourself.
But it's I don't gravitate to solitude. I guess that's the way I look at it. And so sometimes it's hard unless I'm willing to go there as Nan says. That's where I can find the ministry of compassion
because I've been silent. I've been quiet long enough. I've been in solitude long enough to enter into the vulnerability of other people's stories.
Well, and as you're when you are able to do that, you're looking at your own weakness and your own vulnerability. And most of us in our culture and I don't know if it's worldwide or if it's American thing. I don't know. We don't like to see ourselves as vulnerable. And I think case in point is you just look at how many gyms there are to work out, how many vitamins and creams and everything that we try. to avoid anything that looks uncomfortable or gets old or gets would involve suffering at all. I
would see weakness.
Weakness. Yeah. And yet, could it be? And this is something that I heard on Lectio. We you know, we've talked about Lectio 365 quite a bit in our podcast because we've really enjoyed it. It's out of the UK. it's a lot of listening and praying and meditating on a passage of scripture and going back to it again. and again and it's so helpful because it does quiet you down. But one of the things that they said is in Isaiah 36 it there's a picture there or prediction that God's blessings may come to me not instead of being in solitude or in the wilderness but actually within it that God will bless me and grow me in that place of quietness and stillness. He go they go on to say is it possible that God has actually called me into a dry, disappointing, difficult place. And what if I were to make peace with it instead of fighting it? What if we were to make peace with the passage of scripture that we banter around so much, be still and know that I'm God? Making peace with being still. What would that look like in your life?
Yeah. And again, that's that verse says with the purpose of knowing God,
not just for the sake of being at peace. It's not it's just it's a means. It's a m as a pathway for end result of knowing God better.
And so as we are in this season of Lent, which will continue up until Easter, can you regardless of where you see it and how you viewed it in the past, can you see it now as a time that prepares your heart that it calls you to, if you will, come away to your wilderness
to prepare your heart to know him better. That's my prayer for my own life. And that's my prayer for you as well.
And before we go, we have every now and then we have shout outs. And we want to give a shout out to Jonah, who I understand listens regularly. Hi Jonah. And also a dear man that we have been able to hear his story of redemption and salvation, sanctification, all those Asian words that he's experiencing. And that's to John. And John, you know who you are. And if there's a hundred jaws out there, then all of you enjoy this. But John is a special friend to us.
Thank you and have a great week.