Life is filled with hard stuff. Death. Sickness. Family. Work. There is no shortage of trials. Hard stuff happens to all of us. We all have to face our share of hardships and difficulties. Like I said earlier, life is filled with hard stuff.
Just this past week, this is just some of what happened. A beloved mother, grandmother, aunt, and sister died just days before Christmas. The day of the funeral, a man suddenly died of a heart attack in another city. The man scheduled to preach the lady’s funeral had to go away to minister to a grieving sister in law, who lost her husband and to a wife who mourned for her sister’s loss. On Christmas morning, I received a message that a beloved football coach, who brought a state championship and dominant football to my hometown for seventeen years, died suddenly after an early morning jog. The tough stuff of life is all around us.
The question is not if you will have to endure some hard stuff, we all have to. I talked to my great uncle yesterday,who endured another year without his sweet wife. He labors to breathe but still radiates faith and love for the Lord. He lives alone and nobody calls him to preach anymore. Life is not easy for this beloved man of God. The hard stuff of life happens to the rich and poor as well as the famous and the obscure.
While reading my Bible this morning I came across a couple of verses that brought a renewed sense of resolve to get through the hard stuff. “Those who trust in the Lord are as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people from this time forth and forever.” [Ps 125:1-2]
This is pretty simple. Hard stuff happens to all of us. If our trust remains in the Lord, he makes us stand firm. The hard stuff does not move us. God helps us abide firmly, not only in this life but also in life everlasting. Where do you get this trust? I have found the greatest source of this trust comes from time spent reading and reflecting on the scriptures. These two verses out of Psalm 125 helped me today, and I bet some of you reading this are finding some help too.
God surrounds us. He helps us get through the hard stuff. The point we stumble in is thinking we know best how to get out of the hard stuff or how to avoid those times all together. When the hard stuff comes, if we are not trusting in God, our mind begins to play tricks on us. We convince ourselves of faulty information like God is not faithful or does not really love us. We begin to give into thoughts of despair while the trust needed to get through the tough stuff flees.
I am grateful for the people I have met in life who have stood firm like a mountain when they endured the tough stuff. I am talking of real life people like Henrietta Mears who lived her whole life coping with poor eyesight and the threat of losing her sight all together. I think of people like Chad who tragically lost his wife at a family camp, but his trust in the Lord helped him to stand firm. I am reminded of a man named Ray who knew he would die of cancer but did not shipwreck his faith in his last days. He stood firm and challenged family and friends to get right with God. I have seen many people get knocked down by the hard stuff of life. Rather than stay down they got back up again. Some who were abused and abandoned by supposed loved ones summoned the courage to love and trust again. Some who nearly lost every dime they had trusted God and lived to see better days.
We need trust in God no matter what things look like and even when we do not understand and see no way out. Trust is having confidence in God no matter how long you have to wait or how bad things appear. Remember God surrounds His people like a mountain. He strengthens us to stand firm. He establishes us so we are not moved. That kind of trust helps us to get through the hard stuff in life.
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