It's a Hard-Knock Life

Recently heard: "Why??!! Why is life so hard?! Why do we come to care about people who leave us? Why is it so hard to maintain relationships??!! Why can life be so hard??!!" Of course, the list was more specific, but the feeling is more generic. We all face it. Times get tough. Maybe it's a lost job or a lost loved one. Maybe it's failed efforts or physical problems. The list of difficulties in life is indeed long, and the question "Why?" isn't hard to imagine.

When someone is in that place, answering "Why" won't likely help. When a mother first learns that the father of her two young children was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, you don't smile and say, "Oh, it's a blessing from heaven!" Yeah, that's not very helpful at all. The situation calls for condolences and empathy, not wisecracks or even truthful observations about the value of trials. No, the time to learn that stuff is outside of trials. That truth ought to be laid down in our hearts every day that we're doing well because each of us is going to need it.

I saw a video a few months ago where a stunt pilot in an airshow suddenly had a wing fall off in flight. (Okay, his plane had a wing fall off.) While we're all watching for the horrifying crash, the guy gives the engine power, rolls to one side and through means unknown to me -- a non-pilot -- manages to land the craft safely on the runway. My son, who is a pilot, told me, "That guy had a lot of experience." You see, he flew so much and was already so attuned to the process that when calamity occurred, he didn't have to think; he just acted.

Why do bad things happen? There are lots of answers: Sin, poor choices, and so on. God, however, claims first place. He causes calamity. We know this. We call many such incidents "acts of God". The Bible repeatedly speaks of trials and suffering as good for Christians. They shape us. They hone us. They prune us. They purify us. They perfect us. The reason that the saying "There are no atheists in foxholes" exists is because human beings naturally run to God when times get tough. We know "No pain, no gain." Bad things -- unpleasant things -- happen for a variety of reasons, but the underlying, common reason is that God allows or even causes them for our benefit to improve and sanctify us. It is a good thing. God uses bad for good.

Now, that typically won't help people in the midst of trials to feel better. No, we need to be like that pilot with the faulty airplane. We need to so deeply ingrain that in our minds and hearts that when trials arise we can, instead of complain, say with Paul, "I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor 12:9-10).