Day 42

“‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the slander by those who say they are Jews, and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.” Rev 2:9 NASB.

Smyrna was a bad time for Christians. The era of martyrdom when many lost their lives. 100 – 313 AD. Tertullian said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”

I remember reading a story of someone who saw for the first time the pride of technological achievement of the American Air force, the SR-71, an incredibly fast and high flying Reconnaissance plane. While the plane looks incredibly sleek when on the ground it leaks and has to have drip pans under it. Not a good look for such an incredibly expansive machine.

However, once the plane got up to speed and reached its high cruising altitude it would expand and the resulting heat would cause the dripping to stop. Not only that, much of the plane was constructed out of titanium, a metal that actually gets stronger as it heats up.

This story helps me understand the text. How can Christians be poor and rich at the same time? How is it that suffering and affliction are to be welcomed like riches (James 1:2)? I think Christians are a lot like the SR-71. In ordinary life they don’t stand out at all, they may even look like a bigger mess than the average secular person. It is when the trials and stresses of life show up that the real Christian begins to shine. Symrna was a period of incredible trials for God’s people.

God doesn’t permit His people to go through trials in order to find out what they are made of. He already knows. But one reason He allows trials is so that we can discover what we are made of. As we learn to stay close to God in trial He redesigns us so we can fly higher and faster than we could possibly have imagined. If our lives were easier, we might never discover the rich fulfilment that comes from flying at God’s altitude.