MArch 4, 2025
Dear Friends,
We were doing so well. Sunshine, warmth, snow melt, the appearance of grass — and then we wake up to snow and a winter wonderland all over again. Oh, and while we’re at it, the world seems to be controlled by despots and idiots. Media continues to champion the banal over the substantive. My wife is in a dark place right now. I know others who are struggling with everything from death-bringing disease to mental health issues to marital problems to grief. And beyond all this, let me tell you about …
I guess that this is the “narrow” part of the road that Jesus talked about when describing the way to follow him. It’s what Christina Rossetti meant when she described following Jesus as a road that “winds uphill all the way until the break of day,” what C.S. Lewis meant when he described Narnia under the white witch as a place where it was “always winter and never Christmas.”
But let me be clear. The subject of this letter is neither the bemoaning of our combined life circumstances nor lament. Instead, I want to think about the nature of life and following Jesus throughout our lives. And, of course, what I want to say is not new.
Setbacks occur with great regularity but they always surprise us because we don’t account for them in our plans or expectations. The wisest among us might make some contingency for them but we generally expect our plans to work out, our hopes to be fulfilled. And then it snows, or the stock market crashes, or somebody gets sick, or somebody loses a job, or someone seeks a divorce. Setbacks are discouraging and they are demoralizing. They blur our vision of the future, challenge our sense of the good, and tempt us to distraction. They challenge our sense of control and purpose, maybe even our faith.
So, in the face of this universal reality, here is what I want to point out. Setbacks are normal. They will always occur because we live in a broken world, because there is an enemy of our souls who is active, because we need to grow and mature in the art and discipline of living by faith. Setbacks do not indicate the absence of God or the weakness of our faith.
Regarding setbacks, Paul wrote: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” Later, recognizing the sovereignty of God in the midst of his struggles, he added, “Therefore, we do not lose heart.”
If this is true, then what should we do? The answer is simple, actually. Talk to God about what you feel and what you are experiencing. Sit with it, and with him. Make the decision to obey him and act on what you know to do and begin to do it, with whatever strength you have. God is not silent, absent or uncaring. Press on! Spring will come. Joy will return. Muscles will be strengthened. Light will shine out of darkness. Garments of praise will replace spirits of heaviness. But — and this is a big ‘but’ — we must choose to be resolute like Jesus was (see Luke 9:51).
Blessings!
Doug