Nearly 24 Hours Before 32, And I’m Just Learning This Secret Power Move

It’s been a rough year already. But I’m not letting the tough circumstances define 2022. I’m over it, frankly, and I hope you are too.

As I’m lying sick in bed, just a couple days left of my 31st voyage around the sun, I’m reflecting (for what seems like the 567th time this month) on why the Lord allowed so much hardship this year, especially when I was full of faith and optimism in His healing power, His promises over my life, and His promise to equip me for the task at hand. I’ve been neither healed, nor felt very well equipped by Him. 

But here’s what I’ve asked myself: How do we build character? How do we grow in maturity and wisdom? How, even, do we fully appreciate goodness?

By weathering trials (Rom. 5:3-5), experiencing loss, and by being tested.

On this side of history, hardship seems a necessary evil to produce the full fruits of goodness in one’s life. 

As C.S. Lewis, one of my very favorites, says,

 “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world” 

- The Problem of Pain

I confess I’m exercising SO much self-control to not unpack that. Ugh! So many good things to say about it.

While it seems strange and even a little morbid, I think the Lord is deepening my appreciation for the sanctifying effects of pain, suffering, and hardship.

James tells us to “count it all joy” when we suffer various trails, knowing that the testing of our faith in those moments produces steadfastness (1:2-3). He goes on to bless us with “and may steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (1:4). 

For steadfastness, or any virtue, to have its full effect in us, we must be purged of any remnant of the flesh, any leftover sin or fleshly desire in our lives. And purging, unfortunately, requires pain. But I think in this moment, as I’m lying here sick and afflicted for the fifth week this quarter, something has clicked over.

I think I can “count it all joy” a little more than before. I’ve always wanted to count it all joy. I’ve always considered it, even, to be an honor to suffer on this side of eternity because of how much my Savior suffered for me. But I’ve been too feeble-minded and fainthearted to really feel joyful in the moment of suffering. But something terribly good has been brewing in me. I think it is His severe mercy which has allowed the trials to do a deeper magic in the hard-to-reach places of my heart, the places that can only be saturated through this slow steeping process.

It’s always been interesting to me that the most wise and joyful people I’ve met are people who have experienced much hardship. Don’t misunderstand me. There are also plenty of bitter people I’ve encountered who have had a very rough life. But the biggest difference between the bitter people and the joyful people is this: the joyful people surrendered themselves to the process. 

Surrendering to the Lord in any capacity is never a weak or cowardly move. Quite the opposite. It’s the greatest power move you can make.

While I anticipated 2022 starting very differently, it has circumstantially been a theme and variation of last year. But there’s a key difference, a hopeful modulation. I’ve got my fight back. I’m surrendering like I’ve never surrendered before, by golly. 

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What’s all that got to do with being “over it”? 

Well, I’m over this defeatist mentality of allowing the trials to define the year. The trials themselves hold no inherent goodness, but the Lord allows them and uses them for our good. That’s a crucial distinction to grasp. The power move in all this is embracing every circumstance, seeing every inconvenience as an adventure, every trial as an opportunity to grow, every pain as a process through which God desires to make Himself more fully and completely known to us, every hardship as an opportunity to more quickly repent, more quickly humble ourselves, more quickly get on our knees and pray! 

Through the pain He will increase our joy, because through the pain He draws us closer to Himself and makes us more like Jesus. That’s my prayer. That’s what I’m learning. He is “preparing our hands for war and our fingers for battle” in these days, and I firmly believe this joy will become one of our greatest weapons.

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Practical ways to surrender to the process of pain:

1. Praise, praise, and praise some more (with your voice). There is power in declaring His praises with your voice. However awful you might think your voice is, it’s beautiful to Him. And lifting up your voice in praise is a balm for your soul.
2. Memorize Scripture, not only the “prosperity” verses, but passages like Romans 5 and James 1 and 1 Peter and Psalms of lament (Psalm 13 is a great place to start)
3. Be quick to pray. Five minutes spent in prayer are much more effective than an hour spent mulling over your own thoughts. Our own thoughts tend to produce worry. Prayer produces hope.
4. Be quick to ask others to pray. Partnership is very necessary in times of trial. Don’t go it alone.