“God does what is impossible only when the possibilities of man are exhausted. The brilliant thing is, we can stand in our impossible situations and smile because we know now that I’ve reached the end of what is possible for me, I can step into the place of what is possible for Him.” My dear warrior,
In the previous posts, I talked about how we create our own ‘theology of suffering’ in order to be able to make sense of our circumstances. There is no way I could possibly write about every single situation that could possibly exist, but I do think there is a limited amount of scenarios, and that every person’s story is just a permutation of one of these ‘basic story structures’ (for lack of a better term). Today I want to share a different scenario with you: that of tests and territory. Often times, God puts us into certain territory because He wants us to conquer that territory. He wants us to take it for ourselves, to take the blessings that He has already put into it. It is ours …for the taking. It is ours, but it is up to us to conquer that territory.
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“What you need in life will be brought to you, but what you desire, you’ll have to go get. Much of what you cry for will not be brought to you.” My dear warrior,
Sometimes we get ourselves into such a mess that there seems to be no way out, no way to right the wrongs, no answer to our cries for help. No matter what we do, we cannot make it better. And sometimes we’re not sure if we messed it up, if it was already broken, or whose fault it was anymore—or if it’s anyone’s fault. In the midst of the chaos, sometimes we create our own theology of suffering to try to make sense of all that is going on. We develop our own strange ideas that result in a distorted view of God, spirituality and of our own lives in order to try to cope with difficult circumstances, rather than consulting the God who knows all. Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe. My dear warrior,
As I wrote yesterday, any area of your life for which you have no hope is under the influence of a lie. There is always hope. Not only is there always hope, there is always a solution! Recently I was listening to Steve Backlund talking about just that. He said if the brain doesn’t think there is a solution, it won’t look for one. But once the brain actually believes there is a solution, it begins to function like a heavenly search engine, searching until it finds a solution.  “We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” – Romans 5:3-5 My dear warriors,
On Sunday I had the joy of getting to listen to a brilliant man of God speak about suffering. It is something that has been on my heart for some time now, and I knew I would write about it today. As warriors, as Christians – and as humans – we are frequently faced with the reality of suffering. In these past few months, I have been dealt more than one heavy blow in my own life; I have met a woman who was thrown from a building and had nearly every bone in her body broken; I have met a man grieving the loss of his father; I have met a young woman without a place to call home. Tragically, suffering is part of the Christian life. According to scripture, it is a critical part of our formation, it is a critical piece of us becoming the men and women of God we are meant to be. |
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Mere Humanity: Becoming a Mature Christian in an Immature World 
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