Lets be honest!
Most things if they are worth doing are hard work.
Working towards accomplishing that which we believe is significant is not only physically wearing but unfortunately in this life there is a subversive undercurrent that is hell bent on robbing us of everything good.
Often we think of evil as that which makes people commit horrific atrocities, crimes of such detestable proportions that we have no other way to describe them.The reality though is that evil is not only present for, or the cause of such deplorable crimes but all around us silently and unceremoniously working to suck the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control out of all our lives.
It’s a chilling thought.
But there is good news!
Our stories may be of struggle, but surrender and defeat do not need to be their endings. Our stories are part of a wonderful conspiracy to bring our world alive and there is One who is not bound by finite possibility who’s invitation extends to us to overcome the struggle and partner with His hopes and dreams for humanity.
Some may recognise His hopes and dreams but may give up before they even have started, choosing to cling to the safety of the status quo hoping to avoid any kind of struggle. Meanwhile evil steadily erodes their love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control anyway. Others recognise His hopes and dreams, make a start but begin to consider giving up as the struggle begins to bite.
In my context I believe it is God’s desire for every young person in our nation (and every nation on this planet, and in any other galaxy for that matter) to have the opportunity to discover His Love, engage with Him and develop through discipleship relationships. With the Pais Movement in Ireland we hope to recruit, train and place as many missionary apprentices as possible. We have established a working model that is seeing young communities come alive on the north coast on a weekly basis but now we hope to reach beyond. We can’t do this on our own, we need churches to partner with us, people to host and finances to make it happen. It is no surprise when as we set our sights on expanding beyond and establishing sustainable finances to resource our mission, once again we feel the squeeze of suppression beginning to grip tight on our emotions, finances, transport and relationships. Such tactics are designed to make us feel stupid for even daring to believe anything bigger is possible and ultimately rob us of love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, all things good. Many of us navigate similar obstacles and opposition as we pursue all that we believe to be significant, and many times things get worse before we breakthrough.
Thankfully history reassures us that we are in good company and our stories intertwine with great heroes of the Bible like Moses who must have felt like it had all gone wrong after Pharaohs initial response, or David as he ran for his life from King Saul despite being anointed as the future King, or Joseph sold into slavery by his brothers or later the disciples as Jesus hung on the cross or Paul the first time he sat in prison for preaching the good news of Jesus being the risen Christ. The struggle is rarely pleasant but through the beauty of hindsight we find in the Bible and perhaps even as we look back in our own lives we can see relentless perseverance through the struggle eventually pays off and break through is the sweet taste of victory.
Recently I watched some footage of some of the rescue operation in the aftermath of the tragic Nepalese earthquakes. I watched with a lump in my throat as men and women dug with whatever they had, very often with their bare hands for as long as it took to rescue any survivors they could find. I was moved by their relentless tenacity to rescue as many of their fellow community as possible by whatever means it took. In many cases their perseverance paid off and many lives were rescued as a result. As my wife and I watched one video were survivors dug for what seemed like forever, with their bare hands to rescue a child of a similar age as our youngest, the thought of them giving up horrified us.
We might not always enjoy it, we might not always like it, but long may we determine to relentlessly persevere through the struggles we face and may our victory taste sweet like the joy of lives rescued!