Pastor’s Corner: “Rodeo Faith”
1 Peter 4:12 (AMP) – 12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which is taking place to test you [that is, to test the quality of your faith], as though something strange or unusual were happening to you.
I read a cartoon depicting a person with hair flying in all directions and frazzled, sunken eyes. The caption read, “I try to take just one day at a time … but lately several days have attacked me at once.” Another cartoon made the observation that “Computers are teaching our young people to function in the exciting world of virtual reality. Unfortunately, we still have the job of teaching them to survive in the frightening world of actual reality.”
Life is like a rodeo; one day we are tossed up, another day we are tossed down and still another day we are tossed all around. It can be a cliché—Life has its ups and downs—but when it hits you, it’s more than just a popular saying. God affirms this reality in the bible and tells us that we can either be tossed and turned by those changes or we can be anchored by HIM in the truth of His word. Instead of interpreting life through the grid of our experiences and the emotions that follow, we are told to interpret life through the filter of God’s word, not our feelings. And this is how we grow. And if you think growing in faith is a continual ascent into joy, you’re mistaken. It’s an up and down path filled with humility and of casting off the old self and putting on the new. If the way to walk with Jesus is down a bumpy and sometimes painful road, that’s the path I’ll choose. Because, more than anything, I want to be with Him and like Him.
We aren’t immune to life’s alternating patterns, and neither were the heroes of the Scripture. Think of any biblical character you want to, from Adam to Zacharias. As you read about God’s people in His Word, each had good days and bad ones:
Take Elijah, for example. In one chapter, we see him calling down fire from heaven on the ridge of Mount Carmel. Turn a few pages and he’s hiding under a juniper tree wishing he were dead. In the first chapter of Job, we see him rich and respected, on top of the world; happy home, happy wife, good health and wealth. A few verses later, he’s sitting in the ashes, mourning his family, reduced to poverty, and scraping his sores with pottery shards. Consider the patriarch Joseph. He’s pictured in Genesis 40 rotting in prison; turn the page and he’s the Prime Minster of Egypt. When John the Baptist started preaching, he instantly became the most successful and renowned evangelist in four centuries. But when we next see him, he’s sending word to Jesus from prison, asking, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3). Then Herod takes his head. In Matthew 16, Peter heard Jesus saying to him: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah.” Five verses later, he heard the same voice say, “Get behind Me, Satan!” In Revelation 1, the aged apostle John was banished from church and country, sentenced to lonely exile on a penal island; but by verse 10 he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, caught up in heavenly visions to see the splendor of the enthroned Christ.
Perhaps no one except Christ Himself experienced a greater range of highs and lows than King David. In Psalm 30 David describe how God had taken him from hurting to healing (verses 1-4); from weeping to joy (verse 5); from prosperity to poverty (verses 6-7); from mourning to dancing (verse 11), and from silence to singing (verse 12). He ended by saying, “You turned my wailing into dancing; You removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to You” (verses 11-12, NIV).
Psalm 30 simply reflects Scriptural realism. Life isn’t ideal; troubles hit us hard; we can be cast down. But God is faithful; His compassions never fail, for great is His faithfulness. He is all we need, our All-Sufficient Savior, our All-in-All. Whether we’re up or whether we’re down, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
In His Grace,
Pastor Hamilton