“So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

- Isaiah 41:10 (NIV)

Sometimes it’s hard to remember that God is always with us. At times, we may feel as though God has abandoned us or that He has left us adrift in a sea of worry and fear. If you are feeling like this, I want you to know that you aren’t the only believer to ever feel that way.

At a few times in my life, I’ve felt as though God abandoned me, even though I knew in my heart that He never leaves us or abandons us. Typically, I’ve felt this way when I faced a crisis at a time when my walk with Jesus was nearly nonexistent due to personal sin, pride in wanting to do things my own way instead of God’s way, or just simply ignoring the Holy Spirit. And I can tell you from personal experience that when you face a trial apart from God, it’s like being stuck in a snowstorm with no GPS or compass to get you home.

Dallas Willard talks about how important it is to keep up with our daily spiritual disciplines in his excellent book, “The Spirit of the Disciplines”. In it, Willard likens facing trials without a strong personal relationship with Jesus to an athlete who attempts to play in a championship event without ever training to prepare. He wisely points out that it’s our daily walk with God that brings us strength and allows us to face life’s trials (of which, Christ told us we would face many) with His peace and comfort to see us through.

The good news is that God is both faithful and merciful. If we would only turn to Him, repent, submit to His will, and seek His face, we’ll find all the strength we need. But, we must be careful that we don’t become “foul-weather Christians” of the type who only run to God when we’re in trouble (I’ve been guilty of this myself). This sort of Christianity is exactly the type that gets us in trouble in the first place. Instead, we need to be in God’s word and praying each and every day, as well as participating in worship and fellowship with other Christians regularly.

Remember, God’s love is eternal, but we were created to be in relationship with Him. Yes, God is always with us, but if we choose to ignore Him there’s no way we can experience the loving peace of His presence on an ongoing basis. Seek His face daily and He will lift you up and carry you through all the difficulties you will face in this life.

And the best news is, by accepting His Son as your personal Savior and believing in Him, you’ll have eternity to thank God for all He’s done for you.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.” – John 6:47 (NKJV)

¹⁶ Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me,
For I am desolate and afflicted.
¹⁷ The troubles of my heart have enlarged;
Bring me out of my distresses!
¹⁸ Look on my affliction and my pain,
And forgive all my sins.

- Psalm 25:16-18

All my life, I’ve known struggle.

Oh, I’ve not had the hardest life by any stretch, and I know there are plenty of people in this world who have suffered much worse than I have in my 39 years of existence. Yet, the thing about this human experience is that it is subjective, and that in turn makes each person’s struggle relative to their own experience.

As a young man in nursing school, we were taught that we should never assume to know the severity of another person’s pain. I’ve since taken that admonishment to heart as a reminder that every person’s struggle is unique, so I try to have compassion for others and the struggles they go through, no matter how they seemingly compare to my own.

Most recently, I’ve had the humbling and at times humiliating experience of being brought low by a chronic illness. I now intimately understand why my nursing instructors were so adamant about having compassion for those in pain.

There’s really no way to relate to another human what it is like to live every moment of every day in some sort of chronic pain. And, while it is possible to paint on a brave face most days, inevitably there will come those times when you are broken and beaten down, and must impose upon the patience of those around you to grant you a little grace while you recede into yourself until you can keep it together again.

When you’re going through something like this, where every day is a continual struggle to make it through the next hour, the next minute, the next few seconds; in these times, it is inevitable that you will begin to question the point of it all.

“Why God? Why me? Why here? Why now? Why this thing that you’ve cast upon me?” You pray for relief, you look for a sign, you ask for a healing miracle…

And the days go by, and weeks, and months, then years – and you begin to doubt your faith. Moreover, you begin to despair. You doubt there’s ever going to be any positive resolution to your condition, and it all seems so pointless to have to suffer day in and day out in such a meaningless way.

And you ask yourself, “Where is God in all of this?” Your heart breaks, and God’s comfort and love seem so, so far away that you feel as though they never really existed in your life at all.

At least, that’s how I have felt, many, many times over these last few years.

Right now, I’m reading Donald Miller’s book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life. Since I read Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality a few years ago, I’ve been a fan of Don’s work, and in this most recent book he returns to true form, sharing simple and provoking insights about living a Christian walk in the middle of this mess, this constant and unrelenting state of brokenness that is our human condition.

The entire book is a sort of self-deprecating essay examining the art of creating fiction as a metaphor for the greater undertaking of writing the story of our own lives. In yet a broader application of the same metaphor, Donald relates how he has observed that we are constantly trying to live comfortable, unremarkable, and utterly meaningless stories, and how God is continually whispering a greater, grander, more beautiful and endearing story to our hearts and souls. If we would only listen, we’d hear the story written for us by the greatest Author ever known; a story written just for us, an epic that allows us to play the great role we were intended for since time began.

At some point early on in the book, Donald attends an intense three-day seminar on story creation given by Robert McKee, who turns out to be a somewhat curmudgeonly yet entirely earnest and brilliant teacher on the topic. McKee tells his students, “You put your characters through hell. You put them through hell. That’s the only way we change.”

Over the course of the book, Miller comes to realize the truth of what our flesh and spirit struggle with; that is, we are by our nature in the flesh complacent, lazy, and drawn toward familiar comforts. We utterly fear and despise change, never mind discomfort or pain. It is only through the shock of intense and often painful experience that we become who and what we are meant to be.

As I started writing this, I was listening to my infant son crying at the top of his lungs, because I’d put him down for his afternoon nap and he wanted to sit in daddy’s lap instead. What his five-month-old mind does not realize and cannot comprehend is that he needs something that he doesn’t want at this time.

It’s more fun to be up with daddy, gumming his toys, listening to classical music and hearing the “tap-tap-tap” of the laptop keys across the room. But his daddy knows when it’s best to make him lay down, make him be still, and get him to switch gears for a while. He doesn’t like it at the time, but later he’ll be fine with it after he realizes the actual benefits of his nap.

I believe in many ways we are much like infants to our heavenly Father. Our cries must be like infant cries to Him, breaking His heart just as it breaks my heart each time I hear my son cry. Yet, our God wants us to live a better story, the one He has written for us. In this regard, He also knows that sometimes we must be allowed to experience a little suffering in order for us to change.

If you are suffering right now and at the end of your rope, I know this may be of little comfort to you. I can tell you in my own experience that there is nothing more trite than being told in the midst of intense sorrow and pain that “it’s all for the best”. That feels like a slap in the face in the midst of your trial, and I know it is absolutely no comfort at all.

So, the best thing I can do for you (and often it’s the only really helpful thing any of us can do for a friend who is suffering besides just being there for them) is to pray what Peter prayed for some two millenia ago:

“But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.”

- 1 Peter 5:10 (emphasis mine)

“He who gives to the poor will not lack, But he who hides his eyes will have many curses.”
— Proverbs 28:27

I know that verse is a tough one to hear, but so often I see people turning a blind eye to the suffering of others. I strongly feel that as Christians, we need to set the example for giving in our communities and around the world.

There are many opportunities for giving to charities that help spread the word of God and the message of Christ’s redemption while also seeing to the physical needs of people who need help. Compassion International is one of them.

Compassion International is a Christian ministry operating in over 20 countries worldwide. Their mission is to release children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enable them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults.

Compassion is a 4-Star charity as ranked by Charity Navigator. They offer care, support, education, encouragement, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with children in some of the poorest countries and areas of the world.

Right now they are holding a contest called “The Great Sponsorship Challenge.” The purpose is to find sponsors for unsponsored children. It only costs $38 a month to sponsor a child, which provides that child with:

• Food and clean water
• Medical care
• Educational opportunities
• Important life-skills training
• Most important of all, your sponsored child will hear about Jesus Christ and be encouraged to develop a lifelong relationship with God.

I’ve set up a page for our sponsorship team efforts at the following web address, with the goal of getting 200 children sponsored. If you feel so moved by God to sponsor a child through Compassion, or if you just want to find out more about the Compassion’s mission, simply click this link:

http://www.sponsorshipchallenge.org/teammikem

Thanks!

- Mike M.

P.S. – I know sometimes it’s hard to give when you are feeling under a financial crunch. However, I strongly believe that God blesses givers. But by all means, if you have reservations about giving then seek the Lord’s will in prayer before making a decision.

John Burke is our lead pastor at Gateway Community Church. John doesn’t know it, but he’s part of the reason why I started attending church again.

I’m really thankful for God leading us to Gateway Church, and also I’m thankful that God is equipping people like John so they are able to make someone like me feel at home at church, even though I’ve always struggled with feeling comfortable in a traditional church setting.

I know God is working through people like John to help people like me come out of their isolation and back into active involvement in the church. I’m just glad there are pastors and other people in the ministry like that who are really trying to reach people where they are. It hurts to be alone, and as the following message explains, God doesn’t want us to fly solo.

So, here’s the message from the service today… it’s Part 1 of a new series called “Nobody Stands Alone”:

Want more? Head on over to www.GatewayChurch.com.

Oh, one more thing – Pastor Burke has a new book coming out soon called Soul Revolution (about living in the presence and awareness of God). It’s available at Amazon.com if you want to check it out.

Earlier today, I came across this lecture (http://www.cosmicfingerprints.com/audio/newevidence.htm) regarding scientific evidence of God’s existence and couldn’t help but think of it as a lecture of hope.

That is, hope to all people who hear and read the story put out by the secular culture regarding the origin of life, creation, evolution, and so on, and doubt the existence of a loving and caring God who created a planet uniquely designed to support intelligent life…

Now, I’m not a science professor… but according to the bio on the site the author of this lecture, Dr. Hugh Ross is:

“…the youngest person ever to serve as director of observations for Vancouver’s Royal Astronomical Society. With the help of a provincial scholarship and a National Research Council (NRC) of Canada fellowship, he completed his undergraduate degree in physics (University of British Columbia) and graduate degrees in astronomy (University of Toronto). The NRC also sent him to the United States for postdoctoral studies. At Caltech he researched quasi-stellar objects, or “quasars,” some of the most distant and ancient objects in the universe.”

All I know is that Dr. Ross explains some very technical concepts regarding the scientific evidence for the existence of God in terms that even I could understand, despite my pitiful understanding of physics and astronomy.

For more on Dr. Ross and his work, visit http://www.reasons.org/.