Life is Tough – Embrace It
Well, so far it's been a bit of a morbid week, hasn't it, saying “life is tough - expect it. Don't expect life to be all roses.” But I'm not trying to suggest this week that we become gloomy, pessimistic, miserable Christians. I do believe we need to be a glass half full type of people seeing the good in situations and people all the time and finding positives.
I'm not saying that we need to walk around saying “life is tough” with our heads hung low. We can still embrace life and live it to the full and enjoy it. Even though life is tough, in fact, the only way to get through our difficult times is if we embrace them and truly make the most of them.
Embracing Trials: Building Spiritual Endurance
Do you remember the words of James, the brother of Jesus? He said, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” So much for being a pessimist! Consider it joy, he said, when trials come. James was saying, “Life is tough. Embrace it!” Be glad and embrace trials when they come, because your trials are producing endurance and maturity in your soul.
You know what, friends? There's nothing more formidable than a mature Christian who has learned to endure life's tough times. A soldier was carried to the hospital and his face was grossly disfigured from battle wounds. By the time the surgeon was through with him, his head was covered in rags, nothing but his eyes, peeping through all the bandages. And a visitor said to him, “Oh, you poor boy.” But he replied, “Don't pity me. Pity my buddies over there who have been hit where it doesn't show.” The visitor said, “Oh, so you don't mind being disfigured?” The soldier said, “Disfigured? I'm not disfigured. I'm decorated!”
And you know the Christian will receive many battle wounds as they live the life of faith. How are we going to handle them? Are we going to say, “Poor me, poor me, I've been hurt?” Or are we going to say, “don't pity me, I'm not disfigured, I'm decorated! I have my battle scars and I will embrace them.”
Finding Joy in Suffering: Embracing Trials for Christ
There's this verse in Acts, the people of God had been flogged and beaten and Luke, the writer, says “the apostles left the Sanhedrin (who had abused them) rejoicing because they had been counted as worthy of suffering disgrace for the name.”
Life is tough. Embrace it! Count it as joy when you get to suffer for Christ! After all, isn't that what Jesus did? Jesus didn't give up halfway up the hill to the cross. He embraced the pain and suffering and walked on and endured, knowing that God was using His pain for good friends.
We can't choose whether or not life is going to be tough. That's a given. But we can choose whether or not to embrace the trials and make the most of them make the right choice today and embrace life even when it's tough.
