Maintaining Spirituality in a Crisis. (Part 1)

The key verse in the story of Job is Job 13:15, “Though He slay me yet will I trust in Him.” (NKJV). Through all the tribulations you find in his narrative he still had a firm faith in God. Job is the oldest book in the Bible, written by Moses when he was in the wilderness. Here are some similar words from Paul’s epic story: “We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.” (2 Corinthians 4:7-10) On other occasions Paul listed many of the afflictions he endured.

How do we get a faith like that? What do you do when you don’t know what to do? What do you do with wounds that don’t heal? What do you do when you don’t feel like reading the Bible and your prayers are voiceless, or appear to go no higher than the roof of your room? What do you do when the toxic depression of hopelessness sets in, or your head is in your hands because of failure?

What do you do when you struggle from the desert all parched and dry and stumble upon an empty well because you have nothing left to draw up? Does that mean your faith has been vandalized – has it evaporated?

Imagine the story of Moses when he fled from Egypt because of his failure. Picture him at the well of Midian with his face buried in his hands, feeling a failure, and asking how he got from the palace to this parched place. God was not finished with him yet. There were still 80 years to run in his story. It was still 40 years to the exodus. I often wondered how Moses, during the Exodus, dealt with millions of people asking, “Are we there yet?”

I Have been on both sides of the crisis fence. I have watched it and I have experienced it. This is the story of everyone of us. Some just experience it with greater intensity. One of the truths of life is that you either have just come out of a crisis, you are in the middle or one, or you soon will be. There were times when I dished up platitudes when my own life was untried. Platitudes like: The ship can be in the stormy sea but what happens when the stormy sea gets in the ship; or God did not promise smooth seas, but He does promise a safe arrival. Again, life is the University of Hard Knox. It has two schools, the school of needful knocks and needless knocks. Its colours are black and blue.

This guru approach, of throwing pious platitudes at every situation sounds good, but it doesn’t heal wounds or make things better. As I discovered, there comes a time when we must see if this actually works. I had to find out if I had programmed my own life for the stormy seas.

Crisis comes to all our lives. They are inevitable and they usually change our life forever. We can’t escape change; it is a law of the universe. Change points in our life are usually permanent. We wish life would stay on a good day, but we do walk through the valley of shadows, cross the river of unemployment, or the ravines of tribulation. As the John Denver song says;

“Some days are diamonds

Some days are stone

Sometimes the hard times

Won’t leave me alone

Sometimes the cold wind

Blows a chill in my bones

Some days are diamonds

Some days are stone…”

All crises do not have a good ending. The sick do not aways get well. We experience loss and hurt. The modern miracle mentality you find in some churches is faith destroying because it requires God to act in response. It is in fact a form of sorcery where we have to say the right words and have the right faith and then God must respond.

The way is not always easy. It is not easy to see God when the way is tough. The essence of true faith is trusting God and believing in the final outcome, even when present circumstances seem to contradict His promises. Guarantees like Isa 43:1-5 “Fear not…” or Matt 28:20 “I will be with you until the end…” TBC