I had the pleasure of doing a seminar on The Life You Were Reborn to Live last weekend at Second Church of Christ in Danville, IL., and then again to preach out of one of the chapters during their Sunday morning services. I’ll be honest: this book has not broken any sales records, but it’s so rewarding to see people interact with its content. After the session on angels, a woman cried out, “Thank you!” and everybody clapped. This isn’t a book that people feel like they need, but it seems to hit home when they connect with its message.
So, this week and next I’m running an excerpt from one of the more serious chapters, a lesson that has changed my outlook on life: the need for adversity. The theme is this: we need to do more than simply “accept” discomfort; we must learn to value the place discomfort and adversity have in our lives. I lean heavily on Thomas Brooks in this chapter, but as he’s one of my favorite writers who I believe has written the classic on this topic, that’s a good wall to lean on. I hope you enjoy it. And if you do, please consider picking up a copy. If you’ve already read it, reviews on Amazon, Christian Books, and Good Reads are vital to let people know it exists, and I would be so very grateful if you’d take the time to let others know about it.
“Affliction is a fire to purge out our dross, and to make our graces shine. Affliction is the remedy which cures all our spiritual diseases.”[i]. Thomas Brooks
Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.
Psalm 119:67
Last night, a seminary student of mine asked my advice for three different couples she’s working with, all of whom are facing a sexual addiction. This morning, I read a friend’s book about a long descent into opioid and alcohol addiction and an agonizingly slow climb out of it. I’m in the middle of a long stretch of work (over two weeks without a day off) that I try to avoid but sometimes fall into, and my addiction of choice is sugar. When I’m overly stressed and tired, when adrenaline has coursed through me during a long engagement and I’m off the stage, my brain begs for that sugar rush.
We’re all messed up in different ways, but if there’s one thing I’m more addicted to than sugar (which Lisa is working on), it’s comfort. I crave comfort. I seek comfort. I hate the lack of comfort. Where do I seek comfort? Everywhere! A chair that forms around me, with a footrest at just the right angle. A winter coat that envelops me, shielding me from the wind and the cold. Shoes that fit so well you don’t even know they are on your feet. A schedule with no interruptions. Relationships with no conflict. Roads with no traffic. Prayer with no boredom. Customer service that is competent. Exercise with minimal pain. Work with no failure.
In fact, life without any complications.
I organize my life in a desperate and futile attempt to stay in my comfort zone throughout the day, but God makes that impossible because He loves me.
That last statement—that God makes unbroken comfort impossible because He loves me—is something I’ve had to learn. The thought that unbroken comfort is a sign of God’s blessing and favor is something I’ve had to unlearn.
There is a major difference between “enduring” afflictions—sickness, aging, personal attacks, financial hardship, the death of loved ones, persecution—and believing that we need them. It took me decades before I understood that afflictions are necessary for a mature heart and soul. Far from resenting them, as I did for so long, I should be thankful for them. In the words of Puritan William Gurnall, “God’s wounds cure, sin’s kisses kill.”[ii]
Dr. J.I. Packer unmasked my spiritual disease: “It is a mistake…to imagine that the good for which God works is our unbroken ease and comfort. God’s goal is, rather, our sanctification and Christlikeness, the true holiness that is the highway to happiness.”[iii]
We are abundantly rebellious, which means we must at times be abundantly disciplined, which can be painful. Even this painful element leads to abundance, however. Affliction isn’t about God’s anger. It’s not to shame us. On the contrary, it’s to bless us and enrich us. Some might call this the blessing nobody wants, but God loves us so much He’ll give us what we need even if we resent him for it because He always does what is best for us.
Continue reading this free blog on Substack HERE.