Fight on, Mighty Warrior

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. . .

We do not want you to be uniformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia.  We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.  Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death.  But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.  (2 Corinthians 1:3-9 NIV)

Yesterday my 3-year-old granddaughter pointed to a wooden plaque that hangs on the wall in my kitchen.  “What is that?” she asked. 

“It says, ‘As for me and my household we will serve the Lord,’” I answered.

Zoe wasn’t satisfied, as though she somehow knew there was a story behind it, and she was determined to find it.  “But what is it?”

I gave another short answer, about how Eliana had made it for me when she was about 9 years old, but again it wasn’t enough.  Sensing her frustration, I told her a little more of the story. . .

Eliana had asked her older sister Laura, who was the artist of the family, to do the lettering.  Laura graciously took out her oil paints and carefully painted the letters on the wooden background.  Before the paint had dried, though, Eliana accidently smudged some of the letters, and quickly took it back to Laura to fix. 

Laura had already cleaned her brushes and was busy with something else, but told Eliana that she was welcome to use the paints and fix it herself.

Eliana cried, because she felt like there was no way that her letters would be as perfect as Laura’s were.  But she had no choice; she took the brush and fixed it herself.  And of course I thought it was perfect; my daughter had created it out her love for me, and the smudge story just made it that much more endearing. 

Satisfied at last, Zoe smiled, left the kitchen and went back to her toys.

I didn’t think any more about the conversation until this morning, while I was praying.  God reminded me of it, and immediately downloaded a revelation into my heart. 

Sometimes life is messy; sometimes prayers aren’t answered the way we want, and sometimes there are no easy answers for why things happen the way they do. 

Paul describes these hard times in 2 Corinthians 1, where he says he was “under great pressure, far beyond his ability to endure, so that he despaired of life.” 

He felt like his troubles were going to kill him.

I can relate to that. 

Once I had some symptoms that mimicked a heart attack.  After a series of tests, the doctor determined that my heart was perfectly fine.

Then she said, “Sometimes, troubles bypass our minds and go straight to our spirits.”

I wasn’t expecting such spiritual wisdom from a doctor, but there it was.

Sometimes our spirits, those mighty warriors within us, get hit with a poisoned arrow of the enemy.  Sometimes our spirits will bravely continue to fight, but not always.  Every once in a while, the pain is too intense, far beyond our ability to endure, and our spirits will drop their swords and leave the battle. 

Discouraged, weary and wounded, we stop praying, stop believing.

But we can't let that happen.

Like the smudges on Eliana's painting, sometimes things go horribly wrong.

And in these times, our spirits groan; they cry out for understanding, justice, peace, victory.  One day, the day we meet Jesus, our spirits will be fully healed, fully satisfied.  

But until then, we must, like Paul, be content with the comfort of the King, and we've got to stay in the fight.

We must strengthen our feeble hands and the knees that give way (Isaiah 35:3 NIV), 

we must continue to fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12 NIV), 

and we must press on for the prize (Philippians 3:14 NIV).

Warriors of old didn’t step out of the battle because they were discouraged, wounded and bleeding. Paul didn’t either.  And neither will we.

We’re human, and smudges are going to be part of our story. 

There will be gut-wrenching, heart-breaking times when we lose a battle to the enemy.

But just as Eliana discovered, smudged letters can be rewritten, and so can our story.

Just as Jeremiah discovered, a slip at the potter’s wheel can be transformed into another clay pot.  Different, but just as useful and lovely as the first.

And just as Paul discovered, hardships and troubles allow us to experience the great depths of God’s comfort.  They also cause us to rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

So stand up and fight on, mighty warrior.  In the end, you’re going to have an amazing story.

 

 

 

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV  Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.  Used by permission of Zondervan.  All rights reserved worldwide.www.zondervan.com.  The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.