Trusting God When It Feels Like Your World is Falling Apart
Anyone who is seasoned in their faith has become used to trials, difficulties and hard times. Yet, it is how they responded to their stress and challenges that makes them worthy to follow. It is not something I wanted to experience or get used to, yet, it is part of life in a fallen world. The world is storming against light, beauty and goodness. We battle against such storms to bring light, love, beauty and goodness forward to invade every second of our days. I know you will enjoy my podcast today with Ruth Schwenk, a dear friend. She has penned some of her thoughts for us today:
Ruth:
We almost always enter chaos suddenly. It’s a phone call. A text message. A routine check-up. That knock on the door. And suddenly we are in angry and relentless water.
Suffering is never convenient, is it? Trials are never timely. That has been our story and I am sure it has been yours, in different ways. As a young mom of four children, the very last thing I envisioned was that we would face the dreaded C word – cancer. I hate even saying it. But that is what happened. Almost three years ago my husband, Patrick, was diagnosed with a rare type of blood cancer.
Suddenly, we were in a storm. Disoriented.
How can this be happening? Why us? Why now? How will we get through this?
Even now, I feel like I am telling someone else’s story. We didn't want this to be our story (who does?!), but it was and it still is. And yet we feel that with suffering comes great responsibility. We know that the hurt God allows is the hurt God can use. Painful, yes, but never without purpose.
While we have found ourselves in a boat, in the middle of a lake, we also have found we are not alone. The Lord of chaos is with us and for us. He really is close to the brokenhearted. If anyone can understand our suffering, it is Jesus, because He suffered for us.
And so the good news is that our storms don’t have to sink us. Especially if we learn the lesson that faithfulness in the storm starts with faithfulness before the storm. It’s the daily and weekly and yearly choices to be with Jesus. It’s the mundane and hidden moments before the kids get up, of being alone with God. Listening to His voice. Longing for His presence. It’s the humility and faith to stay on our knees. It’s the rhythm of opening the scriptures, even when we don’t feel like it. Especially when we don’t feel like it. And it’s the weekly decisions to gather as God’s people in local bodies for the Word and worship and bread and wine.
That’s the stuff of heaven, that has the power, to change us slowly and surely, here on earth. It’s not magic. It is a miracle of sorts. But not the kind we think of. It’s rather ordinary. Which is maybe why we doubt it and resist it at times. But it is the most important work we can engage in. Because it is in these disciplines and decisions that God is meeting us and changing us and preparing us for what we can’t yet see.
It seems that is in part what Jesus is doing in Mark 4, when we meet Him teaching the learners, His disciples, “by the lake.” He was feeding them. Nourishing them. Teaching. Preparing. They needed dry ground. And of course, they needed the storm, the water, for all that seed to grow. But first, the seed.
Don’t we need the same? We need time on the shore. Dry ground. It is spending time with Him today that prepares us for what we will face tomorrow.
And then when the storm comes there is purpose there too. One of the greatest ways God does His work in us is through trials. He doesn't just want to get us from one side of the lake to the other. He uses the "middle". We know these “middle places,” out in the water are often the hardest places. But don’t forget that what God has been before the storm, He will be in the middle of the storm. You can rest in His peace because you know He will provide for you. Because He has before!
And so if I could encourage anywhere right now, it would be to seek the Lord. Make time for Him and with Him. Open your heart to His Word and turn your ear to His Voice.
I don’t know what you are going through right now, what you have faced in the past or what you will experience in the future but today I want you to know that even if Jesus doesn’t stop the chaos around you, He can still the chaos in you.
In my new book co-authored with my husband Patrick, In a Boat in the Middle of a Lake, we share our personal stories of loss and tragedy, along with strong Bible teaching and the experiences of nearly twenty years in pastoral ministry, to help you:
* understand why the depth of your hurt enables you to experience deep hope;
learn to conquer fear to experience the freedom God has for you; and
discover how God uses chaos, and not just the classroom, to shape and work through you.
It’s through the hurt that we come to fully know the hope that is ours in Christ. You can grab your copy today anywhere books are sold.
With you,
Ruth Schwenk
Ruth Schwenk is my dear friend, and is the founder of a popular blog, TheBetterMom.com, and co-founder with her husband Patrick of FortheFamily.org, and a new podcast, Rootlike Faith and the co-author of the new book In a Boat in the Middle of the Lake.
