As my father-in-law, Duane, alluded to our nighttime adventures with Evelyn’s sleeplessness, I thought I’d share some notes and observations from our parish meeting last night. The subject, as God would have it, dealing with adversity.

The man who spoke and led us through discussion has had two very stressful years. Some of you readers know exactly who I mean, and I won’t go into details for everyone else, but basically several of his children are going through deep trials. He provided some Scriptures which speak of how believers should deal with adversity: Ep. 1:11, Da. 4:34-35, Ps. 135:6, Pr. 16:9,33, 21:1, and 1 Tim. 6:3. He spoke of the prosperity gospel, its mantra that godliness is gain, and the trials he faced when in a congregation that held that shallow sort of faith. He spoke of how he lost a child, his very young daughter, and in the middle of his anguish his friends tried to confront him over his hidden sins and lack of faith that had allowed death to claim his little girl. I will remember his response for a long time. With tears streaming down his face and his heart now burdened additionally with sadness for the confusion of his friends, “Do you honestly think that your shoulders are broad enough to carry your wife and children, even yourself! through this life?” If one looks at the Scriptures closely, one sees that this is not the case. As I wrote in my notes last night, the people of God, that love God, that God loves, faced so much adversity for their faith. Look at Job. Look at the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. What did Christ tell his apostles? The world hated Him. How much then would it care for those who love and worship Him?

So, we know that we’re going to face adversity and not simply because of a lack of faith. Many times we must simply learn to glorify God, or learn to see that our trial may even be for the good of someone else. Adversity is a death that will lead to resurrection. Sarah and I are not particularly torn up about Michael’s ears, or lack thereof. (We’ve often wondered if this just shows how calloused we are. Perhaps that is partly it, though I think that I’m saving up my anguish for later, when I am able to see how it will really affect him. A seven week old doesn’t have that different a lifestyle with hearing loss. ) But it will be the source of adversity, as is Evelyn’s current state. Each of these is a small death. With faith through the grace of God, we will be resurrected on the other side. We will be perfected unto good works and our children will be sanctified. With an extra large measure of God’s grace, we’ll even be instruments in the lives of others, but we’re cursed with the mindset that people that always talk about things like this are often disingenuous. I know after last night, that need not be true.