It Ends with Hope

If you have ever met with Pastor Rick, you know he loves his charts and diagrams. No matter what the issue is, he goes to his binder and somehow manages to pull out a paper that addresses exactly what you’re talking about. One of these days, I am determined to heist that notebook and share in his infinite wisdom—but that’s for another day. Anyway, I digress.

In one of my first meetings with Pastor Rick, he pulled out a chart that showed a box with four squares representing different personality styles. There was a square for the “right” way vs. the “easy” way, and the “fun” way vs. “my” way. He asked me to identify which two described me. Immediately, I pointed to the “easy” way and the “fun” way (ironically, I am married to someone who would immediately point to “my” way and the “right” way... God is funny). I am someone who cares much less about the details and more about the experience. If everything doesn’t go right, but people have a good time, then to me, it’s a success! I also just want things to be easy and simple. And to some extent, don’t we all?

I want to be in shape without working out. I want to be thin without eating well. I want to be financially secure without budgeting. And I want things to be clean without actually cleaning. I don’t feel like this is too much to ask! However, as much as we know that none of these things actually happen this way, it’s easy to have this same type of “easy” mentality when it comes to our faith. We want the answers without the lessons, and we want the mountains without the valleys. But the Bible tells a different story.

James 1:2-4 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” The Bible actually says that trials of many kinds are necessary for us to mature in Christ. Although that verse probably doesn’t leave us feeling warm and fuzzy, I know it to be true. All of my greatest seasons of growth with the Lord have also been some of the most difficult to walk through. Let me give you an example.

As many of you know, my husband Wes and I were missionaries in Tanzania. God had put missions on our hearts for a long time, and we knew that’s what He was calling us to. We were meant to be missionaries! We sold almost everything we had, bought a one-way ticket for us and our two boys, and off we went! We thought we were going to live in Africa for the rest of our lives and were excited to be walking out our calling and purpose. Well, for the sake of time, fast forward a lot of time and a lot of stories, and we were headed back to the States. We knew the time had come for us to return, so we packed up what few belongings we had, got on a plane, and ended up in New York—a place I hadn’t lived in almost 20 years.

Our time in Tanzania had been hard, but somehow, the time afterward seemed even harder. When we arrived, we felt defeated and completely confused about what God wanted us to do here. Not only that, but I also remember feeling like I was having an identity crisis with the Lord. You see, I had always been the girl who was going to go to Africa for Him. I was a missionary! ...until I wasn’t. And I felt like this new version of me was disappointing to God. The season felt hard, and I felt lost and broken.

I remember during this time sitting in my car, and a song called “Good and Loved” by Travis Greene came on (if you haven’t heard it, go listen to it). The song is sung from God’s perspective, and the chorus says over and over, “I am good and you are loved.” As the song played, the presence of God filled my car, and the words of the song became the words that God began speaking to my heart. The words were so simple, and yet accepting them as truth began to bring so much healing to my heart: “I am good and you are loved.” God continued to speak to my heart, revealing that His affection for me had never been about me being a missionary, but about me being His daughter. This means that His goodness toward me and His love for me were just as strong sitting in a van in New York as they were when I was sitting in the dirt in Africa.

Maybe those truths aren’t groundbreaking for you, but I had no idea how much I needed to hear them until tears were streaming down my face, and I was going back and forth between laughing and crying. That moment with the Lord was a sweet one, and it led to a time of letting Him reteach me not only about my identity but also about His love and goodness. But when I look back on that season, I’m going to be honest—I would never want to repeat it. It was NOT what I desired, which was ease. But having said that, I also would never want to have missed the truth that came from it. It’s a truth that, unbeknownst to me at the time, would be so necessary as my husband and I eventually stepped into positions as pastors at One Church. To know that the titles of “pastors” matter so little to God in comparison to our titles of “son and daughter” is something I hope never to lose sight of.

I share all of this to say that growing in Christ isn’t always easy. Transformation can be painful, and maturity often comes on the other side of trials. But just like Pastor Rick said this past Sunday, “God never wastes a hurt.” (Full Sermon is Below) Not only does God work through tough circumstances and hard seasons for our good and benefit, but He also uses those times to grow us and mature us. He uses them to reveal truths to our hearts that heal and bring us closer to Him, and He uses them to grow and complete our faith.

So whatever you’re going through right now, I hope you know you aren’t alone. We are all learning, we are all growing, and we are all probably walking through something that we wish was a little easier. But there’s a verse similar to the one in James I mentioned earlier that I want to end with, found in Romans 5:3-4: “We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Notice, it starts with tribulations, but it ends with hope!

So although a part of me will always desire “easy,” and I will continue to hold out for a self-cleaning house or for someone to figure out how to turn an eaten cookie into an eaten salad in my stomach, I am continuing to learn to rejoice in the hard times, knowing that God can turn tribulations into hope. It doesn’t make the hard easy, but it allows for the good and the beauty that only God can bring to be brought out of it. My prayer for you today is that God gives you the eyes to see Him working in whatever you’re facing, knowing that whatever you’re in the middle of right now, no matter how hard, it ends in hope.