The Hard, Good, Life

Whomever the Lord has adopted and deemed worthy of his fellowship ought to prepare themselves for a hard, toilsome, and unquiet life, crammed with very many and various kinds of evil. It is the Heavenly Father’s will thus to exercise them so as to put his own children to a definite test. Beginning with Christ, his first-born, he follows this plan with all his children.
John Calvin

I found the above quote in my Facebook feed this morning.  I read it and recognized it as truth.  The thought that jumped in behind it was, "now there is some good news!"  How do we hold this truth in the same hand with the truth that God is good?

Life is hard.  Even if the Lord has not adopted you, life is hard, toilsome and unquiet.  The good news is that this is God's good world.  He sent His son into it to defeat all of our enemies for us.  He put us right with God, and sends us out to do His work.  When the hard, toilsome and evil come upon us we are not alone.  If we believe in Jesus we are covered in His righteousness.  We have an army of brothers and sisters who are fighting along side us. If we will recognize this we can fight with joy and laughter and fellowship because ultimately we can't lose.  Yes, God tests us to keep us from losing sight of the fact that He has won our battle already.  If we feel alone, it is because we are looking to something other than God to make things right.

A friend of mine has a group that she calls Don't Waste Your Trials.  It has occurred to me lately that it is very tempting to want to hide my trials, or walk away from them and forget them.  Our trials however train us.  They teach us to walk close to God in whatever circumstance we might think will defeat us.  We don't get to pick our trials.  I do believe that He uses them to minister to others.  I can walk with people through certain things because I have walked through them already.  If I choose to ignore that gift I am missing out on what God needs me to do in this world.  These are His gifts to me, gifts that He wants me to share with others.  I don't need to advertise them, God has a very unique way of bringing people together just when they are needed.  When I can see my trials from that  perspective, I can be truly grateful for what God has done, and continues to do in my life.

There are days when I want to hide my trials.  I want to be normal.  I want to look good, or put together, or like someone that I'm not.  Trials look like scars sometimes.  They are scars, but they are scars that God has healed and has used to prepare me for some greater use.  When I try to minimize the hard things in life it doesn't bring joy, it brings condemnation.  I start to think I deserved all the bad things, and that God is angry with me.  I did deserve all the bad things, and a whole lot more bad things, BUT JESUS, already freed me from that.  I am loved by my father and big brother and my brothers and sisters that God has given me.  God is not angry with me.  He needs me to love others that have hit the hard, toilsome, evil days and to share with them the good news that Jesus has freed them from the dark.  Their trials don't have to be endured alone, and they can be used to glorify their father.

There is good news.  You don't have to look good for God.  This toilsome, hard, evil life can be lived with Joy if you will trust that Jesus has already won the battle.  It doesn't mean that life will be easy, it is still life.  It means you can lighten up about winning, laugh with your fellow soldiers and be thankful for the good things life has to offer.