I Struggle With This One

There’s a phrase that people often come across in relation to their current situation. “Can’t complain.” Those people are admirable in my eyes. I very much could complain. It’s not anti-Christian to acknowledge areas that could be the source of complaint. Where we go wrong is choosing to take the complaint. We have the choice to acknowledge it but move on and referring to the underpinning source of thanksgiving. When things are bad, though, things are bad. The deal is going through it.

That leads me to one of my favourite words. That word is – struggle. There is something about the word that lends itself to the Christian walk. When I consider struggle I look at a battle. There is an objective that needs to be reached – there is something to be attained and there is something that prevents us from realising that which could be overcome – but requires overcoming.

It is not to rest in having overcome, it is to travel through to the place of having overcome, and that journey is treacherous and tricky, though ultimately rewarding far more than the travails of the journey itself. That is what the struggle is all about. Struggle implies occasional setbacks. Struggle suggests hardship. Struggle says difficulty. Struggle also declares intention. Struggle speaks of persistence despite those circumstances. Struggle is the story of perseverance in the hope of reaching that place where we say we have overcome.

My own life journey thus far has been one of struggle after struggle. I used to be down on myself because of the struggle. There were well-meaning believers who insinuated that I was meant to be over struggle and just ‘resting in Jesus’ and ‘leaning on His Name’ and trusting in the Spirit, as if life in the Spirit is one of no struggle. But check out what even the apparent ‘super’ Christian Apostle Paul says in Philippians, when he says he presses for the mark – that word pressing is not too far from the concept of the struggle – the intention and the motivation to move forward with the great reward that is ahead. Even the beloved Paul has his struggle, and that’s not the only place that this Spirit-filled apostle experienced struggle.

What I’m grateful to learn is that not only is struggle part of the Christian path, it is something to be embraced as a necessary tool to keep us humble. When I extend mercy to others and behave in a manner to be considered merciful it is exactly because I appreciate the struggle of life – the struggle for Christ. That’s not necessarily about investing in the thinking that we appreciate things better when we have to work for it. That is to say in the light of the grace of God to put us in the position to struggle and realising it is His grace that takes us through the struggle, there’s no room to condemn others who have their setbacks in the struggle. The only time to be angry with people is when they give up in the struggle, when they simply walk away because they cannot take the struggle. Even then it’s a righteous anger birthed in compassion to see people hold on in the struggle because of the promises of God that console through it.

Things will get better for those in the struggle – that is the promise we have in the word that Jesus Himself left that said that those that endure until the end. It’s not a sprint, it’s not a beauty contest, it’s not something to figure out who is the best or greatest, it is a matter of those who will allow the Spirit of God to take His time in shaping Christ in them and stick it through the hardships necessary for the shaping.

God knows there are those who struggle and His grace is sufficient for us all. I used to put myself down, but now I see it as a source of joy even my lowest of low to know that He knows and however I stumble and falter, He sustains me in the struggle and He who began this good work will finish it.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd